“Edi Mariyamme,” 93-year-old Thomas would call out, lying on his bed at the Kottayam Medical College. He was not quite pleased being there, at the isolation ICU for COVID-19 patients, and would call his wife, 88-year-old Mariyamma, who was lying on another bed.
“Enna, Appacha?” Mariyamma would answer, equally unhappy about being away from home.
Nurse Reshma Mohandas who had joined duty at the isolation room, would listen to their complaints. They were not from Kottayam, they were from Ranni. Then what were they doing here, they would ask her. Reshma would tell them that they needed to be there because they were not well. In time, they would get along well with the nurse who was looking after them day and night.
But 10 days later, Reshma too was infected with coronavirus. On March 24, it was confirmed that her test was positive. The news shocked the people of Kerala, bringing faint reminders of nurse Lini, who had been at the forefront fighting the Nipah virus and later lost her life to the disease. But giving new hope to everyone, Reshma recovered in a few days and was sent off from the hospital on April 3, to remain in isolation for two more weeks at her home in Tripunithura.
On a Saturday noon phone call, Reshma tells TNM that she was never too afraid, having known what it’s like to be infected, and how, if you took proper care, you could overcome the disease and be back on your feet. “It was on the morning after my 10-day duty at the isolation ICU that I felt the first symptoms. It was only a small cold but I reported it to the head nurse, who in turn informed the nursing superintendents and doctors of the hospitals. I was staying at the hospital’s hostel and my friends said they’d accompany me to the fever clinic. But I went alone, I was afraid for them. My swabs were taken for testing and I was moved to an isolation ward.
The next day, when I began getting calls from the head nurse asking me who all I had been in close contact with, I realised that the test must be positive. My husband, on a call, gave me all the support, asked me to be prepared in case it is positive, and said there’s nothing to be afraid of. When the doctor came to the room, dressed in the protective wear, I told him I understood even before he spoke about the result,” Reshma says.
There is no tinge of worry in her voice. Of course she is all better now. But even as she speaks of those days in isolation, Reshma sounds admirably calm. She is also full of happy memories of the stubborn Appachan and the sad-looking Ammachi, who got discharged the same day as Reshma, bringing a whole lot of hope to the state. The oldest couple with COVID-19 – who are in the high risk category – recovered in a matter of days.
About Thomas and Mariyamma
“Appachan would not at first eat and was adamant about going home. Then we asked him what he would like to eat. He said that at home, he used to eat the dosa and chutney made by Mariyamma. And looking at Mariyamma, he said that she would like fish curry for her meals. So I began bringing food from the hostel and they began eating happily,” Reshma says.
Covered in their protective white suits, the face of the nurses looking after them were not visible to the patients. But Thomas would identify them by their voice, Reshma says. “He has such a good memory. He remembers all the names up to his last grandchild and all those from his past. Once he began getting along with us, he’d talk for a long time. One night, I saw that his diaper needed changing and he let me do it. That night, he felt very happy and spoke to me till 1.30 in the morning, about the old days when he farmed, about how he used to go to church till recently and about how he got married in his twentieth year.”
Mariyamma was a teenager then. “They have been together for over 70 years now and even now each would ask if the other has eaten. Sometimes we’d bring their beds together and they’d hold hands. Appachan would then tell Ammachi, ‘Edi your hands are not hot anymore’,” Reshma says fondly of them.
Reshma is also full of affection when she speaks of her marriage. “Every day in the isolation ward, I used to have video calls with my husband. He was very supportive. I didn’t talk to my parents in those days. I was afraid of how they’d take it. I just told my brother and asked him to break it to them gently.”
It was after she got discharged and reached her house in Tripunithura that she called her parents and spoke. “They are okay now. I am also happy that my friends at the hostel did not catch the disease from me. I was so worried about it that I prayed more for them than me.”
She is now in isolation for 14 more days, and is living with her husband and his mother, both of whom are also not going out of the house these days. But once the quarantine is over, Reshma says she will join back work. It was in 2017 that she joined the Kottayam Medical College as a staff nurse. “I was not keen about nursing as a student. It was out of my father’s interest that I took it up. But once I finished the course, I became interested,” she says.