What Medical Professionals Go Through Personally, And How Their Families Feel About What They Do

Fighting disease and death, here’s what medical professionals go through personally, and how their families feel about what they do

- Sunalini Mathew

A tweet from a doctor in Australia, @seemathewombat says: “I’m a Dr. I’m about to separate from my family within my home for ?? months. So that I can keeping treating you, whilst trying to keep my family safe. It hurts. No hugs from my girls, no cuddles from my partner. PLS socially distance NOW, to make my sacrifice worth it.”

While such precautions for doctors are still in the planning stages in India, we asked medical professionals what goes through their minds when a pandemic is declared and they are at the forefront of testing and caring. How do their partners react?

Dr Adarsh Pratap, president of the Resident Doctors Association at AIIMS, Delhi, positioned at Emergency, says it is the reason they signed up for the profession. His mother, who is over 60 and lives in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, is worried, but “I tell her it’s like being in the Army in times of war. Ye to karna hi hai (This has to be done).”

Dr R Sajith Kumar, Professor and Head of Department of Infectious Diseases, Government Medical College, Kottayam, is a part of the Corona Clinical Management team for Kerala. He now treats four people in the isolation ward of the hospital. He says that his time at work is unpredictable. “It depends on the condition of my patients. After the Corona pandemic, there are days I have gone home at midnight. But that does not mean that I am not working when I am not in the hospital. I get calls from my juniors asking doubts or to update me on the condition of my patients.”