Hubballi: Three kids infected, mom stays along in hospital

Kishan Singh Bhorde | TNN | Apr 26, 2020, 06:35 IST

Image used for representational purpose only

HUBBALLI: For 12 days now, the mother of three children who tested positive for Covid-19 has been staying with them in hospital though she has tested negative. Doctors said they had to bring her to the isolated ward with special permission as the kids, aged three to seven, would not stop crying, demanding to see her.
The children — two boys aged 3 and 5 and a seven-yearold girl — were confirmed infected on April 13 when their test reports came in. While their father also tested positive, their mother was found uninfected. Following standard protocol, district authorities took the children and father to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). The mother was sent to a government quarantine facility.
On the first day, nurses of the Covid-19 ward struggled to calm the siblings. On special permission, their mother, in a PPE suit, now sits with them, at a distance.
Kids may bedischarged soon
Nurses had a tough time administering daily checks and feeding the children.The twoboys were particularly unmanageable, said hospital staff, as they cried continuously, demanding to see their mother.
Their mother was also worried and requested doctors to allow her to stay with the children. The administration agreed, provided the 32-year-old woman wore protective equipment at all times and maintained a distance from the children. Her mere presence has calmed the children, hospital staff said, while they go aboutfeeding them and administering checks and medicine. Allthreechildren are asymptomatic anddoing well and are likely to be sent home in a week, doctors said.
“The children and their mother are doing fine,” KIMS director Dr Ramlingappa Antaratani said. “We allowed her to stay on humanitarian grounds as the children were inconsolable. She is taking utmost precaution,justlikedoctorsof theCovidward.Her swabs have been sent twice for tests and have come negative.” Another sample has been sent a day ago and results are awaited, doctors said.