Coronavirus can’t daunt this doctor in Barguna

Kamrul Azad treating a patient at Barguna General HospitalProthom Alo

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) rules, after tending to coronavirus cases for a stretch of 7 days, a physician must remain in quarantine for the next 14 days. However, Kamrul Azad has not been able to do so. This 41-year-old physician is the only specialist at the Barguna General Hospital’s medicine department. He has not been able to spend a single day in quarantine since 25 March, devoting this entire time to treating patients.

Kamrul Azad is in charge of the 50-bed isolation ward at Barguna General Hospital. He has looked after the 61 patients who have come here with coronavirus symptoms. So far, 10 of them have tested positive. There were 21 cases under his treatment on Thursday. As the posts for chest diseases and cardiac specialists remain vacant at the hospital, he is having to manage the coronavirus patients.

For coronavirus patients and those with fever, colds and such symptoms, Kamrul Azad is the only hope. After slogging the entire day, he even has to rush to the hospital at midnight if a new patient comes in. He is also looking after regular patients in the medicine ward. On top of that, he provides training to health workers of other hospitals. He was the first to open an isolation ward in Barishal division when treating a student who had returned from China with coronavirus symptoms.

He doesn’t restrict himself to medical treatment. He also spends as much as he can from his own salary to buy nutritious food for the patients. He counsels the patients to give them mental strength as well. He has spent from his own pocket to set up a tent on the hospital grounds to create a two-room zone to identify general patients and patients with coronavirus symptoms.

Barguna General Hospital’s superintendent Sohraf Hossain on Friday said, “He is a qualified FCPS physician and the manner in which he work’s non-stop at a stretch is an inspiration for others to follow. We repeatedly tell him he should rest in order to stay well. But he says, if I rest, what will happen to the patients? He is the only trained specialist in the district to look after coronavirus cases. We are proud of him.”

Speaking over mobile phone from the hospital’s coronavirus ward, a patient said, “Just seeing Kamrul sir gives us mental strength. He has changed people’s general perception about doctors.”

According to the health department, directives were issued mid-January to set up a coronavirus unit in the hospital. Barguna General Hospital did not have suitable infrastructure. In the meantime, at the beginning of February, a student returned to Barguna from China with coronavirus symptoms. None of the physicians were trained to treat coronavirus cases and no one had the courage to come forward. That was when Kamrul Azad stepped forward.

Within the limited premises of the hospital, he arranged for the student to be kept in isolation. He browsed the internet and treated the boy. A sample from the patient was sent to the Institute of Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Dhaka and it tested negative. But he kept the student there under his treatment for 14 days.

In the middle of March a coronavirus unit was opened up at the hospital’s new under-construction 250-bed building. The building still didn’t have doors and windows, but Kamrul Azad used his own funds and collected funds from others to set up an isolation ward there. It was decided that Kamrul would be the physician there.

Kamrul Azad
Collected

Kamrul Azad, on Thursday, said, “I readily agreed without giving it second thought. My family is in Dhaka. My wife, my seven-year-old son, my highly diabetic parents and my mother-in-law who has cancer, are all my responsibility. Given the situation in the country, I couldn’t just keep myself safe for my family.”

He said, “I informed my wife Naiyyar Afreen and she was silent at first. Then she said, you studied medicine at public expense and that has given us such a life of respect and dignity. So stay beside them in this crisis. I’ll look after the family.”

I stay well the whole day. I treat my patients, give them courage. Late at night when I return to my room, I feel very alone. My family’s faces appear before me. I study and write to keep myself busy. There is no room for emotions in a battlefield.
Kamrul Azad, specialist at Barguna General Hospital

Kamrul Azad then came to Dhaka for a day’s training on 19 March. When he returned home that night after training, he developed high fever. The next day a sample from him was sent to IECDR and the rest results were negative. As he left for Barguna, his son hugged him and asked, “Baba, when will you be back?” He had no reply.

Kamrul Azad began work on 25 March at the Barguna General Hospital. Many came with coronavirus symptoms. Everyone was alarmed. Then three days after he left Dhaka, he got news that his son had high fever. Then his wife got fever too. His parents and mother-in-law themselves were ailing and elderly. He was distraught. “I just felt like leaving everything and going back to my family,” he said, “But how could I leave my patients? I just couldn’t do that.

He said, "I stay well the whole day. I treat my patients, give them courage. Late at night when I return to my room, I feel very alone. My family’s faces appear before me. I study and write to keep myself busy. There is no room for emotions in a battlefield.”

He said there really is no treatment for coronavirus patients. The main thing is to give them care and courage. A coronavirus patient also needs a psychologist, but there is none at this hospital.