‘This is my daily battle’

This has become routine. Gulshana Akhter Tagor commutes every day from a hotel in the capital city where she is staying, to the hospital where she works. There she performs her duty for 10 consecutive days. Then she returns to the hotel and stays there for 14 days in quarantine. After that, she returns to the hospital and gives her sample for testing. If she is COVID-19 negative, then she can go home for six days. If the sample is positive, she has to go back to the hotel.

Gulshana Akhter Tagor, a medical officer at the 500-bed Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital, was talking to Prothom Alo about her daily life during the pandemic. She has been working like this since 12 May to treat coronavirus patients. Earlier, she was in charge of Dhaka Shishu Hospital treating children admitted with COVID-19 symptoms.

Gulshan Akhter said she had three homes now, the hospital, the hotel and the house where her family lives.

While in the hospital, she spends her entire duty hours to look after the patients. But, the 14-day quarantine in the hotel is like prison. She has to stay alone in the room. The only way to contact the family members is through video calls. The hotel staff leaves food outside the door of the room wearing PPE. Giving samples for coronavirus testing is even more terrifying. Fear grapples her at the time. If lucky with a negative report, the medical officer is allowed to return home. She only feels relieved then. Those six days are her long-earned social life. Gulshana said, “This is my daily battle now.”

Gulshana Akhter has tested for coronavirus twice so far, but the results have been negative both times.

Gulshana Akhter said, “It takes 20 to 30 minutes for the health workers to prepare themselves with PPE, three masks and other protective equipment before going to the patient or the ward. Patients do not understand whether we are smiling or not because our faces are covered with masks. We are serving the patients with our utmost efforts. Even then, the patients and the patients' relatives often misjudge us.”

“Recently, a doctor was beaten to death. I just want to say, now the situation is not normal. We have to get very close to the patient, sometimes inserting a tube into the patient’s trachea. Having to stay with the patient for a long time, despite taking protection, many doctors have died of coronavirus. We are all scared,” she added.

Gulshana Akhter said, she often suffers from breathing issues due to wearing a mask for a long time.

After returning from the ward, one has to go to a specific room and change her clothes including PPE. The health worker has to wear fresh clothes to go to other wards.

“This is my everyday routine. I performed duty in the hospital during Eid-ul-Fitr. Now we do not have any festival. Not a single patient in my ward has died in the last 10 days while on duty in the cabin block. That’s is a relief,” she said.

Gulshana’s husband Sadman Khan Nabil, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law and other members are staying at their home in Lalmatia in the capital city. A picture of her went viral on Facebook while performing duty at Dhaka Shishu Hospital. BBC News (Bangla) published a report on Gulshana, this medical who was officer appointed through 39th BCS.

Gulshana Akhter said, “At the end of 12 hours of duty, I took off my face mask and took a picture of myself tired and devastated and sent it to the family messenger group. My husband shared it on Facebook. It went viral after that. I didn’t actually send the picture thinking so much. Not only me, all the health workers look exhausted when the protective clothing is removed.”

*This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Farjana Liakat