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Updated: April 21, 2020 5:09:07 pm
Six of them, who have tested negative twice, are now in a resort, waiting to complete the official 14-day tampon isolation cycle before going home (Representative)
On Sunday, Goa announced that all seven people, who tested positive in the state, recovered. Six of them, who tested negative twice, are now in a resort, waiting to complete the official 14-day tampon isolation cycle before going home. Theirs was an encounter with fear, panic and stigma, but also with hope and care. Six of them have consented to offer their blood for convalescent plasma therapy if necessary. The Indian Express spoke to two recovered survivors, both seamen, who count their days of being COVID-19 positive.
Survivor A, male, 37
On March 30, the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Panaji, issued a circular requesting passengers on Vistara Airlines flight UK861, which traveled from Mumbai to Goa on March 22, to report to a helpline . A passenger on this flight, who had returned from New York, had tested positive.
For the 37-year-old, this was the beginning of a long journey. In New York, he says he followed all the instructions – on the cruise ship he worked on, at the airport, and in his cabin seat in the back row. “I knew I had to protect myself. I made sure not to touch any surface for no reason, “he recalls.
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Having traveled from New York with caution, things went wrong at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. “At the time we arrived, there was no social distancing. It was like going to buy fish in the hustle and bustle of a market. “
Later, he would tell officials in Goa, this is where he could have contracted the infection. “Even the trays they were giving us to store our things were handled by a crowd, with nothing disinfected,” he recalls. He went through the queue to test the infrared heat gun. Her temperature was normal.
Survivor A called his home after arriving at the domestic flight terminal, before leaving for Goa. “I told my wife to make sure that she and my parents made arrangements for my isolation in a room. Then I asked them to make sure they had Dettol and hot water ready. ”
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Hours later, he arrived home. He left his luggage in the garage and entered through the back door. “I walked directly to the bathroom that had been assigned as my bathroom for 14 days. I used the hot water for a shower and then soaked my clothes in the Dettol water. These were the instructions, “he says.
What followed next was the “ship drill” in which he received training. “On ships and cruises, we follow the US public health standards and guidelines of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.” These are confined spaces, and we are always very attentive to norovirus (a contagious virus that causes nausea and diarrhea). We are trained to maintain sliding surfaces, especially restrooms and eating areas, with disinfectants multiple times throughout the day. I extended my training to my isolation at home, “he says.
Then he made his first long video chat with his parents and his wife, who were in the next room. “It was emotional. I came back after eight months and they were worried. I had to calm them down and explain the isolation procedures that all foreigners had to adopt, ”he says.
Soon, the exercise was perfected. Her food and drink were left on the plate and mug she had with her, and she washed. Visits to the bathroom were announced, and all family members locked themselves in their rooms first when he came out. “I would keep my hands in my pockets and be aware of not touching any walls along the way. It would disinfect every inch that it touched by washing it with Dettol and Lizol, ”he adds. “Everyone must be responsible. It is the seriousness that you take these precautions that will decide your future and that of your loved ones. Only you can save your family. (No one in his family has reported any symptoms so far. Everyone tested negative.)
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Empty streets during closure in Goa (Express file photo)
Two days later, he had a fever (98 degrees Fahrenheit). At night, when the fever crossed 102, an ambulance took him to Goa Medical College. On March 29, he tested positive and was sent to the designated COVID-19 hospital in Margao, south of Goa. “I thought I was ready. But I went into shock when the test results came in, “he recalls.
Despite being positive, he remained largely asymptomatic: the fever decreased in one day and did not return until the date of discharge. At the Covid hospital, where he shared a room with three other COVID-19 patients, he panicked and scared, from everything he read on social media. “I started to think,” How will I die? “” Will my death be violent? Will I go peacefully? “
In all that paranoia, I was looking forward to the visit of doctors and nurses. “The nurses and doctors would treat us as if they were their own. I would wait for Dr. Edwin Gomes [who leads the team at the ESI hospital] to come in and talk to me. That little human touch felt most important. We were born and grew up to be social. This is how we connect. Being abandoned and separated breaks you. It is not the virus, it is the lack of human contact, the lack of that social coverage that breaks you, “he recalls.
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Then one day, he started talking to himself. “I asked myself:” How can a normal healthy person die? “I started to trust myself and my body,” he adds. He started reading on the phone. “I found that 83 percent don’t actually die from the virus,” he says. Conversations with doctors and stories of survivors, which he sought, calmed him.
On Good Friday, the first test turned negative. At Easter, Dr. Gomes came in in his PPE outfit. “But he had removed his helmet and was only wearing a mask. Then we learned that the second test had also been negative. We had crossed into life, ”he recalls.
Survivor A, like the six recovered patients, has consented to have their blood used for convalescent plasma therapy, if necessary. “This ostracism of COVID-19 patients has to stop. We have been treated as untouchable. On social media, we have been called “terrorists who bring evil from without.” In the long run, in the absence of a vaccine, God forbid if he gets the disease, then we will go ahead to save him. Now we only have life to offer, ”he said.
Four of them tested negative twice, on Good Friday and then on Easter. (Figurative)
Survivor B: man, 32
He arrived in Goa on March 23, after taking three flights; San Diego to San Francisco, then to Goa via New Delhi. Survivor B says he flew at his own cost, when he understood that a blockade was imminent. Your connecting flights in the US USA The rules of social distancing were followed, with two empty seats between the passengers. There were also other strict guidelines.
“All the instructions I followed were forgotten at the New Delhi airport, where we were 11,000 people on the floor, waiting to clear immigration. We divided into groups of 10 and no social distancing was followed. We finally faced an immigration officer 18 hours after landing, ”he says. “I am sure I have contracted the infection in those desperate hours.” He missed his connecting flight and had to take an Air India flight, which the Goa health department later announced as a marked flight after it tested positive.
Like Survivor A, he also arrived at the airport and called his wife and asked her to leave and leave with her in-laws. “It was too risky since she is pregnant,” she recalls. He stayed at home, practicing the sanitary instructions followed on the boats. Fatigue was the first sign in his case, and then, on the night of March 26, his temperature hit 103 degrees. “I called the helpline and they sent me an ambulance,” he recalls. With her temperature dropping to normal, she was asked to isolate herself at home after a day of hospital treatment, but was asked to come in for the test. Her first test was negative, but the second test was positive.
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“Nothing prepares you for that moment,” he recalls. He was the third patient to enter the ESI hospital, the state-designated hospital COVID-19. “They welcome you as a family. Nurses and doctors do not treat him as patients, “he adds. Largely asymptomatic, they put him on antibiotics, with efforts to improve his immunity. “But the greatest medicine was the comfort that nurses and doctors give you. They don’t let you fall, “he says.
He remembers spending an emotional Good Friday in the living room. “Our beds are arranged in the corner, in a cubicle style. The nursing staff is always behind a glass partition. At first, it was just the four of us singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Four patients with all our faith and our desire to heal. We soon saw something beautiful. The entire nursing staff could be seen standing together in their PPE suits behind the glass door and singing Divine Mercy. They were praying for us. It broke us, ”he says.
Six of them have consented to offer their blood for convalescent plasma therapy if necessary. (Figurative)
The 32-year-old sailor had had a kidney operation a decade ago, years ago, and was concerned about the effect of the virus. “I could feel something pressing against my kidney. The virus is like a thief. Find that open window, that weakness in you. In the end it is not the virus, but fear that kills, “he says.
Four of them tested negative twice, on Good Friday and then on Easter. “Doctors are God to us. They cannot be everywhere. As survivors, we can now spread your words. We can tell you to get help as soon as you see any symptoms. Do not worry. Only a quick response can save you. ”
The only time she is waiting now is to hug her baby. “My wife is waiting. It is any day now. I am isolated for 14 days. My prayers are on. “
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