I know I have got a new life and now I only want to look ahead: Railways maintenance employee

STORY OF A COVID-19 SURVIVOR
New Delhi: Faiyaz Ahmad, a 29-year-old Railways maintenance employee posted in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, reached his home in Patna on March 9 . He visits home every year for Holi and this year was no different. Within days, however, he developed cough and a sore throat.

On March 22— the day the PM called for a junta curfew — he felt difficulty breathing. He went to a clinic and the doctor there called for an ambulance and sent him to Nalanda Medical College & Hospital.

“For the first 24 hours, I was kept in a ward dedicated for Covid patients. I was Patient No. 3 from Bihar and there were hardly any facilities. "

"The beds had no mattresses. There were no mosquito nets or fans. And there were no doctors in sight. A common washroom was to be used that was outside the ward," he said.

"We were served meals on time but it had to be picked up from a table kept outside the room. We were treated like kaidis (prisoner).But I don’t blame the nurses as this disease has made everyone scared for their lives.” Ahmad recalls his sample was taken 48 hours after his admission.

When the (positive) results came, his father was asked to purchase medicines from a pharmacy outside. These included Grilinctus syrup, Levocetirizine, Azithromycin and Paracetamol. His breathing would invariably deteriorate in the wee hours, but incredibly, he says no doctor attended to him during his hospital stay.

He never received oxygen support, either. “I would keep praying for me and my family.” With stress and fear of the unknown, a day came when he started hallucinating.

“I would see an apparition of mine standing right in front me—only that figure was healthier and happier. Somehow I felt better each time that happened.”

Ahmad was discharged on the seventh day and was asked to buy Pantop 40 tablet and paracetamol if needed. “That one week feels like a lifetime to me now. I still don’t know how I got the virus.

Why did no doctor visit me? Why do people look at me the way they do? I seriously want to forget all that, as if it was all a bad dream. Though I still feel a little weak, I know I have got a new life. And now I only want to look ahead.”