For UAE’s Covid warriors, serving patients comes above personal safety

When the world was hit by the pandemic, it induced a sense of fear in people around the world. Countries and cities worldwide went under lockdown, and hospital employees worked round the clock to ensure the safety of residents. Many Covid-19 warriors were severely affected by the disease but kept their spirits high in fighting the virus - even when infected.

“I saw death in front of my eyes,” said Dr Srinivasan Ravindranath, a specialist cardiologist at Aster Clinic, Al Muteena. He contracted Covid during the second wave of infection in the UAE, which he suspects to have contracted from a patient. Dr Ravindranath fell severely ill and was hospitalized for over a month. Even after his recovery, he was plagued with post-Covid complications for a year.

After getting jabbed with the first dose of the vaccine, the doctor was down with fever and experienced chills accompanied by severe fatigue and body ache.

“My health was deteriorating, and I was extremely tired. That is when I tested for Covid-19, and the result came positive. Later, I started experiencing shortness of breath along with high-grade fever. When I checked, my oxygen saturation levels were dropping. That’s when I informed my team and was admitted to Aster Hospital, Qusais,” the doctor recalled.

Subsequent tests revealed that Dr Ravindranath had pneumonia, and his lungs were severely infected. “Breathing difficulty aggravated, and I was shifted to the ICU. My oxygen saturation dropped to serious levels of 60, and I was on a high flow of oxygen support. I was conscious but extremely tired. I did not have the energy to even speak,” added Dr Ravindran. Even after recovering from Covid-19, Dr Ravindranath continued to face severe complications with breathing difficulty and complained of severe mental stress. “I found it difficult to concentrate. I experienced one or the other difficulties every time. Sometimes, I struggled with diarrhoea, headache, and many other difficulties,” said Dr Ravindranath.

Another frontline worker, Dr Dhanaraja Devadiga, hailing from the Indian state of Karnataka, is a General Practitioner in the intensive care unit at NMC Speciality Hospital, Abu Dhabi. He played an active part during the pandemic at his hospital.

Being on the frontline at the ICU, and despite taking all precautions, he complained of having symptoms of Covid-19. He experienced fever, headache, and muscle pain with a sore throat in April 2020 during the deadly first wave.

Not having his family here with him, he had to battle it all by himself and received encouragement from his colleagues. “Initially, I was a bit worried and anxious about my recovery as, at that time, there was no definitive treatment, and the only way was to improve one’s immunity,” said Dr Devadiga.

“So, I followed our dietitian’s advice to improve my immunity. Fortunately, within two to three days, I recovered significantly, and I was very confident that I would recover fully and get back to work”, said Dr Devadiga, who joined back after the required isolation period.

Jobish Gopinathan, a 33-year-old registered nurse at Aster Hospital, Mankhool, contracted Covid-19 in January 2021. Head nurse at the emergency department of the hospital, he led the nursing team and was the first in line to treat people with Covid-19.

He was admitted to the hospital and saw a slight improvement in his condition. Following this, he was shifted to the isolation facility of the Dubai Health Authority.

“My respiration was very poor. I was on high oxygen supply. The condition became so bad that the doctors shifted me to CPAP ventilation. I was lying in a prone position for days. It was the only way I could breathe,” said Gopinath.

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