Vijin V has not gone home in six months. He hopes to go next week, for Onam. A staff nurse at the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital in the Kannur district of Kerala, Vijin is joining duty on Tuesday, after recovering from the dreaded COVID-19 and finishing two weeks of quarantine. Incidentally, he did not contract the disease from the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, where he worked two shifts, but from the non-COVID wing of the hospital.
Along with Vijin, another staff nurse, Saheed VT, had also tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the same day – July 23. They went into isolation at an Ayurveda hospital nearby, arranged for the hospital staff, and recovered in a week. Both have joined duty too – Vijin to non-COVID wing and Saheed to the COVID-19 ICU.
“I came to Kannur two years ago because of my love for Theyyam. I am an artiste too and sing folk songs. Kannur – the land of Theyyams – was a huge attraction for me,” says Vijin.
This year, however, there was no Theyyam season, due to the pandemic. Vijin quietly worked in the ICU for COVID-19 patients in two 14-day shifts. “After each shift, we go into a 14-day quarantine during which we get tested. Both times, I had tested negative,” Vijin says.
Wearing the Protective Personal Equipment (PPE), which the staff dispose of after four hours of duty, helped.
It is after this that he joined duty in the non-COVID wing, at the medical ICU. In a few days, Vijin developed a fever and other difficulties, following which he got tested for the coronavirus. “It is believed to have spread from a patient who was admitted for non-COVID reasons but tested positive later. Along with me, postgraduate students – junior doctors – on duty had also tested positive.”
Saheed, another nurse who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the same day, says that the source is a patient at the surgical ICU. Unlike Vijin, Saheed’s house is not far away. He lives in Kattampally, a village in eastern Kannur. So he could go home every day, but even so, he chose to spend his quarantine days in a centre so as not to put his aged neighbours at risk of contracting the disease.
He had joined the hospital only three months ago and worked in shifts both at the COVID and non-COVID wings. Joining back after his recovery, Saheed chose to work at the COVID-19 ICU.
“I think we are more protected there since you wear your full PPE kits. In the non-COVID department, we only have masks and gloves,” Saheed says.
Vijin chose the non-COVID wing since he wanted to go home in a few days and there wouldn’t be time if he had to work in the COVID wing and then be in quarantine too.
“What really helped us during the isolation and quarantine periods is a WhatsApp group formed by the staff of the hospital. We were always cheering each other up, having small competitions on the group to keep our spirits high. I had especially felt cared for, having come from a faraway land and with no relatives here. There is a lot of love here, with the people you work with calling you up every now and then and asking after you,” Vijin says.
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