Chennai: With the Covid-19 pandemic, we are living through a world crisis that we have never seen in nearly a hundred years.
The enormous scale of the crisis and the impact it has created had already caused a lot of fear, uncertainty and anxiety across the globe. The frontline workers were always at the risk of contracting the virus, despite which they have served us and took care of millions worldwide.
“When the pandemic started no one knew about it precisely and we were in the same boat too. All the employees and nurses were terrified but when we gathered them with respective managers and conducted meetings to explain their duty, they came forward. We had taken the initiatives to train them and counsel them about how they have to take care of the patients in the given scenario,” says Rajula Selvakumari, chief nursing officer, Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai.
On ICU units, she says, “Generally, the ICU care unit had always seen the hardest goodbyes and warmest welcomes, but Covid-19 ICU care units were no less of a greater chore. We were running aisles to get the patients what they needed on time each moment. This reminds me of the most challenging day in the Covid- 19 ICU critical care unit. This was the time when cases peaked up, we were accommodating 40-45 patients all at once. Suddenly, we received a call from the emergency room that there were three patients that had to be admitted as early as possible. we accepted the admissions wholeheartedly.”
She adds: “We had assigned two nurses who took care of these Covid patients, as our first priority were always them, we were making arrangements for them for a hassle-free admittance. We received the call about their arrival past 5 pm in the evening and these critical patients arrived at 7 pm. They were in miserable condition; one patient was unconscious and the other two had major respiratory problems. I remember how their saturation levels were at 80 and it was terrifying to see three patients at once with such ailments. The nurses were so composed and calm with those patients who happened to recover in later stages.”