With a big jump of 149 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases in India has gone up to 873. The mortality and incidence rates of corona casualties are still increasing, even as you read this article. The rise came even after the country is in the midst of a nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Migrant labourers and the homeless are the worst hit by the lockdown as they are forced to go back to their villages because the novel coronavirus has robbed them of their daily income.
While a lot is happening across the world these days, we came across a horrifying story of a suspected COVID-19 patient which needs to be heard. Kriti Maroli, who is a dentist in Gurugram, shared her story of living through hell over being a coronavirus suspect through a Facebook post.
Recalling how she suspected herself to be infected with coronavirus, she said that she had signs of high fever, fatigue, dry cough and myalgia headache on the night of March 18. Considering that she might’ve come in contact with international patients who claimed to have no travel history, Kriti got her blood work done the very next morning. The findings showed almost normal WBC, lymphopenia and slightly elevated CRP. She self-isolated herself and shut her office down and was on symptomatic medication since.
On March 21, her general physician advised her to start on Clarithromycin and get a chest x-ray done after she developed a high fever of 103 again. Since March 22 was announced as the ‘Janta Curfew’ day, she thought of getting it done the same night. Narrating what happened next, she wrote, “ I called Artemis emergency and told them that I need an Xray. Immediately the executive on call asked me what were my symptoms, to which I replied fever and cough…They said sorry you sound like a Covid suspect hence you can go to Civil hospital or RML for your x-ray”.
Still in shock, she did manage to get her x-ray done at a Fortis hospital and sent the report to three of her doctor friends. On the suggestion of one of them, she got herself admitted at Medanta Hospital where she was put in a negative pressure isolation room and all her blood work was done again. Explaining what happened at the hospital, she wrote, “An arrangement was made to collect my throat swab and send it to the govt facility in Rohtak. Until then I was to be assumed, Covid positive, H1N1 positive, bacterial pneumonia positive and treated for all of them. Here I had an IV line established which was to last for a couple of days, and I was put on the strongest of antibiotics, the Covid 19 protocol, and Oseltamivir”.
The doctors at Medanta informed her that they will have to wait for two days minimum to get the results as they will send the sample to the civil hospital, who will then send it to Rohtak and vice versa.
Recalling that night, Kriti said that she had terrible side-effects because of the loading dose of the COVID-19 protocol and the other medication she was on. “I thought I could die from the nausea and headache rather than Covid itself. I threw up several times and begged the nurses to inject me with antiemetics and paracetamol and thus lived the night”, she added.
Three days after the collection of the sample, the doctors told her that her sample was not yet processed by Rohtak. Kriti howled away until the doctors told her that they will resend the sample, but through Lal Path Labs this time, who are also short of kits BTW.
Questioning the government, Kriti said, “I, a healthcare worker, have developed pneumonia due to a possible patient exposure and am on IV medication. The government doesn’t give a damn about its doctors. What are they waiting for ? For me to die with acute respiratory distress or be put on a ventilator before they can process my sample? All private labs are equipped and ready to take on samples, but the government is doing nothing to send them the kits”.
According to Kriti, she was almost asymptomatic when she developed pneumonia. She further added that half of the population wouldn’t even know that they have symptoms as they don’t even have access to get tested.
Thanking the doctors and other staff at Medanta, she said that they are the real heroes for her and that such healthcare professionals deserve a Paramveer Chakra. Awaiting her test results, she said that she wants to test coronavirus negative and wants to go home.
Read her full post here:
We wish you a speedy recovery, Kriti!
Featured Image: Facebook/Kriti Maroli
