Coronavirus survivor Nafia’s hospital days

“I was not actually expecting much care from the hospital, especially at this time when people are at their wit’s end with the spread of coronavirus. Maybe this is why after leaving hospital I thought I was looked after well. The physicians asked how I was and gave me advice, nurses kept the medicines at a fixed place regularly. I did not have to bear the treatment costs.”

This was Fayez Nafia Rahman, a merchandiser at Deco Group. She is a coronavirus survivor. Currently Nafia is at her home after her primary recover. She will undergo another test to be declared completely free of COVID-19. She is at her home, but remaining separate from the others.

Nafia said the hospital sent the ambulance to her home to take her to hospital. "I just had to manage and bear the costs to return home. I also got a lot of help from the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). Maybe I got extra care as I was from the capital’s Tolarbagh area, a red zone for spreading coronavirus. But this is a personal experience and opinion,” said Nafia.

Nafia, speaking over the phone, said, “I met physicians at the hospital who asked whether I’m in good condition or not. I was staying with four others in a ward. One bed was empty. Four of us were in a relatively better condition but the elderly one among us was a bit worse. There was a specific table for everyone's medicines . If anyone was not in condition to get the medicines alone, we would take it to the person. We got news of two deaths at the hospital while we were there. But I kept up my confidence since coronavirus is such a complex problem and does not have any medicine. This is why, keeping oneself mentally strong is most important.”

Nafia said she tested positive on 7 April evening. She was in a confused state about where to be treated. As she was almost asymptomatic, many acquaintances and a physician of IEDCR advised her to take treatment at home. But she decided to get admitted to a hospital after thinking about the risks of staying at home for her parents and young nephew. After informing her decision to IEDCR, they gave her the phone number of the control room of Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital.

By 11:30pm that day, she reached the hospital by an ambulance that the hospital sent. A physician noted down her details before taking her to the designated hospital bed.

Earlier she was advised from the hospital to bring her essentials with her. Nafia said, “IEDCR staff came to my home to take samples. My fever, sore throat and cough receded while I was still at home. This is why I thought maybe the test results would be negative. But I got apprehensive when someone from IEDCR called and asked all sorts of questions. Later I learned I had tested positive. It is tough to explain what went through my mind right at that moment. Immediately I shut the door of my room. My family started crying. But I braced myself and started for the hospital after arranging all the necessary things alone.

Nafia stayed at the hospital for 10 days. She said there were so few positive and encouraging stories at this time of virus infection. Everyone has learned by news reports of a son not accepting his father’s body, of a mother being abandoned in a forest and such. They see media reports about people not getting care at hospital, relatives are not staying by them.

However, Nafia said her experience at the hospital was not so scary. She has seen many people’s relatives staying by their dear one’s. Nafia said until leaving the hospital she did not hear about any relatives testing positive for coronavirus. She said she went to her office for last time on 19 March. Since then she had been working from home. No one of her family went outside of their home when the situation of Tolarbagh in Mirpur-1 deteriorated. Still she tested positive. However, none of her family has so far tested positive.

Nafia's throat felt a little sore first on 3 April. Since then complexities increased but the symptoms decreased while staying at home. She returned home from hospital on 17 April. She recounted her hospital experience on her Facebook wall on 19 April. She also thanked the physicians and others involved with the treatment and wished recovery of all those persons she left behind at the hospital.

Until 23 April morning, Nafia’s post got around 9000 likes and was shared around 3,500 times. In over 200 comments to the post, many said they were encouraged while a few were sceptical about whether she really had good care.

Nafia insisted this was her experience only. “Time and again I have been saying this experience and opinion is only mine. It might not be a common experience, or this cannot be said that there are no problems at the hospital. I was not disappointed since I did not go there with much expectations.”

Coronavirus survivor Nafia said there are many questions about the control room’s service at the hospital. If you call them for something in the morning, you could get that in the evening. I had that experience. It is very normal that the toilet would not be very clean since there was only one toilet for six patients of the ward. The hospital does not have any budget to provide patients with Vitamin C of anything outside the the basic three meals. After I informed my colleagues about this, many of them sent oranges and such fruit for me. I appreciated that a lot, especially at this time of crisis in the country. The scenario at the corona ward changed frequently. It became vacant at a moment and filled the next day. Physicians and many other people also are ridden with anxiety. The environment is not at all normal.

Nafia said, “I’ve seen people crying whenever they got a call from relatives. I would tell them this crying would just worsen their respiratory complexities. And if we patients do this, family would lose courage. Crying won’t do any good. We must fight coronavirus and increase our immunity.”

In her Facebook post, Nafia has written, “A physician on the day before my release told me, you will be released and go home and we will have to be admitted here.”

Nafia, in her Facebook post, requested people not to hide their COVID-19 symptoms as this has been infecting their families and physicians. She asked the people to realise how dangerous the situation would be if the physicians get infected.

*The report has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza