37 days in Covid ward, awaiting report

TNN | May 3, 2020, 07:23 IST

Noida: Both Ashwin Sharma and his wife had tested positive on March 26. After the mandatory 14-day isolation in a Covid hospital, doctors told Ashwin his wife was fit to be discharged and decided to stop his treatment as well. Ashwin knew he had no imminent danger from Covid-19, but he could not go home.
The wait for the Cease Fire employee continued for 37 days as the report of his final tests kept getting delayed. Around midnight on Friday, a nurse arrived with the report and told Ashwin he had tested negative.
Morning was just a few hours away, but Ashwin could no longer wait. He left for home around 1am.
Ashwin’s stay in the hospital is the longest by any Covid patient in Noida so far. And it was not because of any complications to his health, but the delay in his test report.
The Cease Fire worker and his wife were initially taken to the Child PGI hospital in Sector 30 after they tested positive on March 26. The couple were shifted to Sharda hospital after Ashwin’s infection started to spread and he needed oxygen support. His samples were collected multiple times, but his reports were yet to arrive.
Their treatment for Covid, according to guidelines, got over on April 16. Ashwin’s wife was discharged from hospital. But for him, the wait had just began for the report to arrive.
“After I left, four samples were collected from him, but none of the reports came for over 10 days. His X-ray was clear, and other reports were normal, too. But he had to stay back at the hospital with other positive patients just because his final report was getting delayed,” said Pooja Sharma, Ashwin’s wife. Pooja said Ashwin hadn’t spoken much since his discharge from hospital. “He preferred to catch up on some sleep,” she added.
Doctors at Sharda hospital said when Ashwin was brought there, he was among the few serious Covid patients in the district.
“He had severe pneumonia in both his lungs, which is seen in serious Covid patients. Apart from the line of treatment prescribed for Covid, we gave him high-grade antibiotics. He also needed oxygen support for a while. However, he responded very well to the treatment because of his will power. We prescribed only supportive medication during his discharge, such as multivitamins and a high protein diet,” said Dr Devendra Kumar Singh, associate professor at Sharda.