A nurse tests positive and a quiet birthday for daughter in a ward

She moved to Delhi from Pathanamthitta 15 years ago and began working as a nurse. A decade ago, she joined DSCI, where she works in the cancer ward. “From administering medicines to checking the catheter, IV tubes, listening to patients’ requests, explaining to their relatives about treatment and medicines… we do it all. Once I recover, I will go back to work. There is no other option,” she said.

“We work in three shifts — 8 am-2 pm, 2 pm-8 pm, 8 pm-8 am — and the roster keeps changing. All these years, I didn’t have to worry about the children because my husband would manage. When he left for Kerala mid-March, the house-help pitched in, but after the lockdown even she couldn’t come. So I would drop off the children to a friend’s house nearby and then go for my shift,” she said.

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Once cases of DSCI staffers testing positive started emerging, she started getting nervous and the rules at home changed. “I would return home from my shift, immediately rush to the bathroom, take a bath, wash all clothes, and then see the children. I told them ‘no hugging mummy’… It’s hard to explain that to children. I am most worried about them,” she said.

After she tested positive, she had no choice but to take her children to the COVID ward with her. The siblings tested negative Wednesday. “I was on the phone all Wednesday, trying to find a place for them to stay since my husband is still stuck in Kerala. Finally, a friend took them in. Now I talk to them on video call. It’s hard, I worry for their safety, their health and diet, but I have started developing symptoms now — headache and cough. They can’t be around me,” she said.

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She is one of 18 nursing officers and orderlies at DSCI to have tested positive for coronavirus. Speaking to The Indian Express, many of them had earlier alleged they were not given PPEs even after a doctor there tested positive.

She said she will return to nursing — a profession she fell in love with as a young girl in Pathanamthitta — and hoped that “the PPEs will be there”.
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