Women fight COVID-19 in Patiala; spearhead disease at cost of family time

Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, July 1

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Swati Dhawan, a microbiologist of the Health Department, has not taken a single day-off from her job since January 15. She has been playing a key role in collecting samples of COVID-19 patients.

She has collected over 1,000 samples already. Forcing herself in hostile situations, she collects samples from containment zones, like Rajpura—which makes her job difficult.

Talking about her difficult days, Swait revealed: “Once, a group of people in a congested area of the city — gheraoed us to spook. Consequently, we had to call the police to defuse the situation”. 

Swati said there have been times when she had to collect a sample at midnight as well. She added that her family, especially, her husband was a great help. He has been taking care of her five-year-old daughter in her absence.

“My daughter always complains of that I don’t spend enough time with her. On Sundays, she hides my office-bag so that I don’t go to the office,” said Swati. 

Another corona warrior, Dr Rupinder Bakshi, who is in-charge of VRDL Lab at Government Medical College (GMC) Patiala, is a one-man army.

Dr Rupinder works round the clock to test over 3,000 samples in a day. She caters to over six districts of the state.

Bakshi believes that she has been given an important responsibility during the global crisis, and she wants to fulfil it with utmost sincerity.

“From 40 samples a day to 5,000 now, the testing was a stressful job because a subtle mistake could lead to a bigger blunder”, said Bakshi. 

“I have to check reports twice before sending them to Civil Surgeons”, Bakshi added.

Communication with COVID-19 patients makes a difference: 

At a time, when doctors are afraid to step closer to COVID-19 patients, Dr Nidhi Sharma, a Medical Officer, interacts with patients fearlessly—day in and day out.

Dr Nidhi Sharma, who works at the COVID-19 Care Center, believes that a patient’s satisfaction was the real motivation for her.

“At the end of the day, If a patient recovers and goes home with satisfaction, I am happy. Sometimes, the level of ignorance — shown by the people by mistreating the COVID-19 patients — frustrates me,” said Nidhi.

“It is a huge learning experience for the medical fraternity as they (doctors) have landed in a situation that they have no clue of. The virus is unique and volatile,” said Nidhi—who hopes that situation gets better soon.