Lt Col Seema David, Patient Care Coordinator and Controller, NOIC, Covid Isolation Unit, Command Hospital Eastern Command, Kolkata followed a routine of updating families with health reports of the admitted patients during the peak wave. But one call was different …
Let me hold the door for you.
I may have never walked in your shoes.
But I can see that your soles are worn
And your strength is torn
Under the weight of a story
I have never lived before.
So let me hold the door for you.
After all you've walked through,
Its the least I can do.
-Morgan Harper Nichols
The helpline bell rang as usual. Being the Patient care Coordinator and Controlling, for Covid Isolation Unit, I was serving as a liaison between the Covid patients, their families and the hospital. An usual day of mine and I geared with an 'all ear' attitude to helpline queries to disperse information about the concerned patient.
The name sounded familiar to my ears. Every morning this solidier would sincerely call on the helpline to enquire about his mother, who was Covid positive, critically ill and now on ventilatory support.
As I enquired about the patient details and started turning the system updated patient information report pages, he said, "Mam, don't search there, she has passed away!"
I froze for a moment. The next moment, silence was naturally born between us. The only noise was the ticking of the wall clock. After a deep breath, I expressed my condolences and paused "How may I help you for now?"
He replied, "Since the time my mother got admitted to the Covid ward, I looked forward to every morning. I used to call you and you patiently updated me on all my queries. She is no more with us, but I thought I should thank you and everyone who looked after her. This single call was a hope and great support for me and family. You even helped us with the video calling facility, because of which we were able to see her, for which we will always remain grateful!
Silence fell again between us. But this time only for a moment.
The pain of losing both my parents to Covid resurfaced, and I dared to share my loss with the mere purpose of grief counselling. As I expected, it worked wonders! It was great relief for him to find a person who underwent similar loss!
This time he wanted to know how was she taken care of, her last moments, what would have gone wrong!
I explained every single query, how well she was looked after, despite no kith and kin around.
As we were nearing the end of the conversation, he requested to ask one last question. I readily agreed. He said, "You don't get scared taking care of positive patients?" I smiled and confidently said, "We used to be scared earlier just like you! But it doesn't scare us anymore. If you can stand before the bullet, equally we can equally stand in a viral loaded environment. The only difference is that our enemy is unseen!".
He said he was thankful to the organisation for taking such thoughtful care of his mother. He used the whole vocabulary of gratitude in saying that!
I realised that despite the loss, my day was a blessing!
Our team, who worked with kindness and compassion had made a difference to someone else's Life! That's why its most important to empathize with someone's experience you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be.
In this digital era, and infected Covid environment, leveraging telemedicine is a remarkable strategy to reduce infection rate. Because telesystem potentially minimise the exposure of the healthcare worker. Less paper work and digital inputs for consultancy, treatment and co ordination of the team as well.
People are not able to have their last hug, last conversation nor a last glimpse. This is disturbing and devastating because of their inability to see the people they had loved for "one last time". And empathy is the attempt to appreciate the emotions of another, to feel the world from their perspective. We as care taker need to walk gently in the lives of others.
Using the following tips by the team will help touch and technology to blend and pave the road to healing.
1.Please encourage patients to talk to their families daily.
2. Video calling for Covid ICU cases every day evening. Ideally, the MO should counsel family. This practice should be ensured by MOs/ NOs daily.
3. Sometimes, few patients who are so tired, may not be able to get up from the bed and recharge their mobile. Kindly ask the Nursing Assistants/ ward help to look into this matter and them out.
4. Any updates, in patients progress, decision making, transfer should be informed to the patients family. This will not only earn the trust of the family, but also reduce their anxiety significantly.
Integrating Family into the care process of a Covid patient is challenging, but possible, if health care personnel's possess the necessary willpower, empathy and compassion. The warmth, concern, perception, sensitivity and compassion are integral to the art and business of healing- it can never be replaced by technology. Nursing services has an extremely important role to play in this respect.
Great going Team! Salutations to every single warrior on the Covid war front and heartfelt tributes to those courageous warriors whom we lost in this fiery battle.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
For Together we can, and we will overcome!
Jai Hind!
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