“I REGRET THAT I HAVE BUT ONLY ONE LIFE TO GIVE FOR MY COUNTRY – NATHAN HALE”
As I started writing this, I noticed how it’s raining outside. You see, gloomy times call for gloomy weather.
Morning, as usual, I started rushing to the hospital. Just another day of the COVID-19 era. That’s what I have begun to call it now. My day as a radiology technologist was filled with traumatic episodes, hopeless stories and helpless anxiousness among my co-workers yet again. We were struggling to get face masks, hand sanitizers, non-surgical gloves, and other essential PPE.
There are thousands of staff members and arranging huge supplies is almost impossible for hospital authorities (quite understood, but unfortunately unacceptable). I have been using the same mask for a week now. I had an extra supply of gloves so my hand hygiene is maintained for now but cannot say the same for everyone.
As I enter the Hospital, it reeked of fear. Some of my colleagues are in their early 50’S hence, low immunity. A few are pregnant and dead-worried about the life they are carrying within. The most traumatic part comes at the end of the day, contemplating which virus or disease are we host to. We all are fighting the same invisible demon.
All these years, we have become accustomed to turmoil, but there is nothing eerier than these empty corridors. They haunt each one of us and it’s unlike anything we have ever encountered. The last time I’d heard of such a villain was back in Harry Potter – Voldemort. This is worse, and they both don’t have a nose. Similarity enough?
Every day there are new cases, new suspects and now… deaths. I wonder about the students and our people away from their homeland where things are even worse where treatment is sky-high and getting a face cover costs a bomb. I pray for their safety.
Another day my colleague went to take an x-ray of a COVID positive patient. Before he left, we discussed precautionary measures in detail. Everything – things to be taken care of, to avoid infection to other patients without thinking of ourselves. We are not saints, but our job requires us to be selfless. I could see the fear in his eyes but that’s the commitment we promise to our patients.
The whole idea of this write-up is for you to know how important it is to stay indoors. Your lives are important to us and it’s wrong to have 5 attendants accompanying the same patient without any PPE. We understand you’re scared, we are too, but is this the cost you’re willing to pay, our lives for yours?
Just yesterday, I saw a patient coughing so badly. Covering his face would have been one thing, he even spat in the corridor. My first instinct was anger and just after that fear – that I might catch something airborne. I fled without saying a word!
Most of our staff members have started living in out-houses with the fear of infecting their families. These are the lengths we are ready to go to ensure better health and wellness. Maybe the best you can do is to put your Mubarakass, khabri and nazar’dinn on hold. This virus cannot be put on hold. You think you are invincible. You think it cannot infect you. It’s a favor just not for yourself, it’s for us all. We spend day and night to keep you safe. How about you do a teeny tiny bit as well in the form of social distancing?
STAY HOME, STAY SAFE
Author : INSHA BANDAY : IMAGING TECHNOLOGIST, SKIMS SOURA
