A social media post by Dr. Kriti Maroli, a Gurugram based doctor regarding her ordeal with the COVID-19 tests has gone viral and is attempting to expose the various lacunae in the Indian health care system.
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In the post, she talked about her last five days of her life.
Some of the excerpts from the social media post are:
On 18th March night, I developed signs of high fever, dry cough, myalgia headache and fatigue.
I work in a profession that involves aerosol exposure and I might have come in contact with international patients who claimed to have no travel history.
Considering that these were clearly symptoms of COVID 19, I got blood work done the very next morning of which almost normal WBC, lymphopenia and slightly elevated CRP were the findings.
I kept myself in isolation from the rest of my family, shut my office down from the same morning itself and was on symptomatic medication ever since.
Three days later, on Saturday the 21st night, I developed a fever of 103 again. My general physician advised that I not wait and start on Clarithromycin and get a chest Xray done.
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. What I heard next was unbelievable. They said sorry you sound like a COVID suspect hence you can go to Civil hospital or RML for your Xray.
The next call was to Fortis. I did manage to get an appointment for the Xray in the emergency dept. I drove alone in the middle of the night with an N95 mask (lest I infect my husband) to the hospital and came back with an Xray from the emergency after two hours.
I took a screenshot of the Xray and forwarded it to three of my doctor friends.
On 22 March 7:30 am two of the doctors that I sent the Xray to reverted saying that my right middle lobe clearly shows pneumonia. While I was contemplating what to do next, I get a call from one of the doctors who said that she spoke to a chest physician and a radiologist. Both of them had the same thing to say:
The symptoms are suggestive of COVID, and so also pneumonia developing within three days of the symptoms. I should get myself admitted irrespective of a hospital immediately lest it progresses into respiratory distress. My breathing was normal.
I am grateful to certain doctor friends in my life, I did manage to get into Medanta after paperwork. I was one of their first native COVID suspects with no travel history. The protocols to treat COVID suspects were being established as I entered.
I was put in a negative pressure isolation room.
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 were to last for a couple of days, and I was put on the strongest of antibiotics, the COVID 19 protocol, and Oseltamavir.
On that night, I experienced such side effects because of the loading dose of Covid 19 protocol, and all the other meds combined.
Next day I was better. The exhaustion from the meds got the better of me. IV lines ended up blocking, I had to find new veins to inject more.
My sample was collected on the 26th. I was told I wont get my report until 28th.
I am told that Lalpaths too has an acute shortage of kits. Until I wait for the future course of my life I will continue with the aggressive treatment of pneumonia of any kind! There are bruises because of various IV lines. My conclusion from my experience in the last few days:
I am healthcare worker, have developed pneumonia due to a possible patient exposure and am on IV medication.
All private labs are equipped and ready to take on samples, but the government is doing nothing to send them the kits.
All they have been doing is sending PR material on social media that they have mylabs that will develop a million kits.
I hope to come alive out of this. I am still in isolation and the stigma associated with this disease is real.
Nobody wants to visit this floor. The nurses are coming to terms with what they are about to be hit. That they have no choice but to treat me. I have almost come to the end of 14 days since my symptoms.
I hope some lab rescues me and releases me from the hospital and just gives me my report.