The 50-year-old software employee who tested positive for COVID-19 after he returned from the U.S. has spoken about the need to be mentally strong while one is being treated at the isolation centre.
He was discharged from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases last Monday after two of his tests came negative for COVID-19. He is all in praise for the doctors at the health facility and said that they handled even an “irritable” person like him well. He said that he travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow and developed fever while in Los Angeles. He cut his trip short and returned to Bengaluru on March 8.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, he said that his only grouse in the journey was that those screening him at the airport could not test him immediately. “As soon as I landed, I knew something was wrong and I declared that I have fever and body ache. But they were not equipped to give me a test,” he alleged.
He said that he wore a mask and was isolated from his family and went to a private hospital in R.R. Nagar for a test. “They had no idea about the testing and I later went to RGID and the doctors at the hospital were very prompt in attending to me. In fact, I was relieved when I heard that I tested positive because I knew something was wrong,” he said.
He said that managing his fever was a huge challenge particularly because he was in isolation and he felt a bit low. He also said that there was spike in his sugar level, which was another challenge.
Conversations with his spiritual guru and a message from his wife gave him strength to navigate through this phase, he said adding that most patients are still trying to figure out how they have contracted the virus. At the hospital, he said that he tried to spread positivity among other patients by talking to them from a distance.
He says that his own achievement has been that not a single person was infected because of him as he took the necessary precautions. He even praised the government as his daughter, who is a second PU student, was able to write her examination as alternative arrangements were made by the Department of Pre University Education.
He, however, said that his wife had to go through a harrowing experience after people learnt that he had tested positive. He also had to avoid calls as news was leaked that he had tested positive.
“It was difficult because unlike other health conditions, here my family could not come and meet or take care of me,” he said and added that it was important for a patient to be mentally strong to defeat this communicable disease.
