‘Patients need moral support more than anything’
Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 8
“When I am on duty, patients keep asking me about the symptoms of other patients and if they will recover. They have been isolated from their families. Medicine will play its role, but they need moral support more than anything,” shared nursing officer Narindra Tyagi, who has been posted at the Nehru Hospital Extension (NHE), PGI.
The 34-year-old feels content about having completed seven days of duty roster on the third floor of the NHE isolation ward where more than 77 Covid patients are admitted.
He is now on 14-day quarantine — as necessitated by protocol.
“I had volunteered for duty as I wanted to set an example for juniors, who were scared of the disease. In 2009, I worked for three months in an H1N1 ward. That experience has helped me a lot now in the Covid ward,” said Tyagi.
Sharing his first-day experience, Tyagi said: “When I first stepped in the lift after wearing a hazmat suit and was headed to the ward, I felt I was falling into a pit where death awaited me. It is a quiet, isolated and dreary place.”
He added: “My seniors once told me that if I refuse to do any work, I’d never evolve. You don’t always get a chance to serve the nation.”
Taking care of patients’ small needs
During his duty, Narindra Tyagi used to visit all patients twice a day to check whether they have eaten or if they needed anything. “The other day, a few patients required shampoo, so I arranged it for them. Some others needed turmeric and salt. These are small things, but keeping in view the nature of the disease, we try to cater to all this,” said Tyagi.
‘Eight-year-old son cried’
His eight-year-old son cried the day he joined the Covid duty. “I had stopped going home for the past one month as I was previously posted at the emergency ward where SARI patients were admitted. Before joining the duty, I came home to meet my family, but my son was busy using his phone. The next day, he came to know that I am on the Covid duty. He broke into tears and then called me,” he said.
