“I will leave this room within a week after defeating you,” the nurse had vowed after contracting the coronavirus while attending to India’s oldest COVID-19 survivor, expressing unflinching faith in Kerala’s health care system.
Last Friday, Reshma Mohandas, 32, walked out to her home, where she is placed under 14-day quarantine, after she and the elderly man and his wife were discharged from the Medical College Hospital here on being cured of the disease.
Soon after, Thomas Abraham, 93 — whose recovery has been called a ‘miracle cure’ by doctors — and Mariyamma, 88, left the hospital, Reshma, too, headed home, but with the resolve to come back and serve the patients after the mandatory quarantine.
‘World-class system’
“I will leave this room within a week after defeating you [the novel coronavirus],” Reshma had posted in a WhatsApp group of her friends and colleagues while undergoing treatment. “I posted that message in the WhatsApp group because I have full faith in Kerala’s health system. It is world-class,” she told PTI from her home.
The nurse, who took care of Thomas and Mariyamma since March 12, believes she contracted the virus as she was in close contact with and often talked to the couple, who did not wear masks, for they made them uncomfortable. She said she loved taking care of all their needs. “I was not tensed at all. I love taking care of elderly people. We used to talk a lot [in the Intensive Care Unit],” she said.
Reshma, who was earlier working in the operating theatre of another section, said she used to work four hours in the ICU before she contracted the virus and was admitted to the same wing. “I had close contact with them in the ICU because I paid attention to their every needs,” she said.
The warning sign came on the morning of March 23 when she had a throat infection. Reshma immediately alerted the head nurse, who informed the doctors. She was asked to visit the fever clinic at the Medical College and was referred to the isolation facility where she took care of the elderly COVID-19 patients. Some 20 nurses who had come in contact with her were sent to home quarantine.
On March 24, she tested positive. “I did not have any other complications, barring headache and body pain,” she said. Reshma said she was ready to serve in the isolation facility for COVID-19 patients after the home quarantine.
“I am ready to work again in the isolation facility when I return,” said the nurse, whose husband is an engineer. She was all the more happy that proper medical care at the hospital led to the recovery of Thomas Abraham and Mariyamma.
Health Minister K.K. Shailaja called up Reshma to express her happiness over her recovery. The Minister said the news about a health professional contracting the coronavirus was a matter of concern for the State. In a statement, she hailed Reshma’s dedication and said she had treated elderly patients like her parents.
The elderly couple, hailing from Ranni in Pathanamthitta district, had contracted the virus from their son, daughter-in-law and grandson who returned from Italy last month. All of them have recovered.