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  2021-05-07

  Story of civic warrior 2 nd wave in india

  Daily diary of a covid doctor for last 2 months…. The message towards the end of 2nd wave of pandemic The last 2 months of 2nd wave of the pandemic have been the most hectic in all aspects emotionally, physically, personally. Finally got some time to pen down my experience towards the end of this 2 wave. Working in territory care hospital as an intensivist, managing own start-up Providing doctors on call for a home visit, tele and video consultation, free consultation for underprivileged people. Every day waking up after hardly 2 to 3 hours of sleep. I will would see 10 to 15 miss calls, Finish teleconsultation as much as possible and then do a home visit for few patients on the way to hospital, Home visit for covid patients has been a totally different experience, these were the patients under the most stressed condition not getting hospital beds, their family physician had stopped seeing them due to fear of self infection. with proper PPE protection treating patients at home successfully is so self satisfactory as a doctor which only COVID warriors like us can understand. Then reaching my COVID ICU where the sickest patients in the city are there, managing such a sharp surge in critical cases has been a Herculean task, time is key in critical care setup, the timely decision to give ventilator support or ECMO support saved few lives. thankfully I have the best doctors, nurses, paramedics, housekeeping, and management guys who make our work easy. Those grueling 8 hours In PPE without food water or toilet. And the most important was talking with the family of those sick patients, ask any 1 of our covid warriors every1 has hundreds of sad story of each family. This used to break us emotionally. Coming out of covid ICU, the number of missed calls for teleconsultation was pending. I would finish them while having lunch In the evening. During the peak of this my wife working as anesthesia Doctor at BHU got infected for 2 nd time, And lost 2 elder family member due to COVID, But the patient's family expectations from me kept me doing my work, and didn't visit my sick wife or attended the funeral of any of my relatives. Then in late-night had kept free teleconsultation slot for my native hometown Sindri, Dhanbad patients. And also underprivileged patients from pan India. After finishing calls, night again would start home visit for covid patients which would go till 2 to 3 am in the morning. Then finally to find a nap of few hours till the next day of battle. This is the story of lakhs of lakhs of covid warriors like me. But think about us now we are also getting burnt out, So request all people not to relax after 2 nd wave, get vaccinated use mask maintain social distancing even after govt unlocks, it's not over yet………... Dr Animesh Kumar Mishra Critical care medicine specialist Apollo Gleneagles Hospital. Founder of DCHS healthcare solutions. 9176138128