KOLKATA: A young doctor who got infected on the line of duty is now back to work in Kolkata’s tertiary level Covid hospital after being discharged from the hospital and completing the mandatory home isolation. Rishav Mukherjee, a second-year post graduate trainee in the medicine department of Medical College Hospital Kolkata (MCHK), brushed aside the risk of professional hazards like getting infected with the virus and said that he could not wait any longer to resume work.
The budding doctor who had been posted at the Covid-19 isolation ward of MCHK had tested positive for the virus on April 19. When he started working in the ward, the hospital was not designated as a Covid hospital. But like any other hospital, it had to run a fever clinic and isolation ward for Covid suspects. Mukherjee and his colleagues had been posted in the isolation ward as they were from the medicine department that contributes largely to the functioning of isolation wards in hospitals.
“I was dying to come back to work. But I had to follow certain protocols before I could start working again,” the doctor told TOI.
Mukherjee, now deputed at the Green Building of MCHK, is geared up to accept whatever duty he is assigned. He is among 12 doctors — eight from medicine and four from radiology — attending to around 95 SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) patients. “Initially, I was apprehensive when I had tested positive for the virus. But then I realised that people of my age without any co-morbidity are at extremely low risk. Support from family, patients, colleagues helped me recover from the viral attack. I was glad that none of my primary contacts had tested positive,” said the doctor.
Mukherjee was discharged from ID&BG (Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General) Hospital on May 1. He had been in home isolation after being released from the hospital. He said he had observed professionalism among the ID&BG doctors and nurses and this would help him handle patients at MCHK.
The budding doctor who had been posted at the Covid-19 isolation ward of MCHK had tested positive for the virus on April 19. When he started working in the ward, the hospital was not designated as a Covid hospital. But like any other hospital, it had to run a fever clinic and isolation ward for Covid suspects. Mukherjee and his colleagues had been posted in the isolation ward as they were from the medicine department that contributes largely to the functioning of isolation wards in hospitals.
“I was dying to come back to work. But I had to follow certain protocols before I could start working again,” the doctor told TOI.
Mukherjee, now deputed at the Green Building of MCHK, is geared up to accept whatever duty he is assigned. He is among 12 doctors — eight from medicine and four from radiology — attending to around 95 SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) patients. “Initially, I was apprehensive when I had tested positive for the virus. But then I realised that people of my age without any co-morbidity are at extremely low risk. Support from family, patients, colleagues helped me recover from the viral attack. I was glad that none of my primary contacts had tested positive,” said the doctor.
Mukherjee was discharged from ID&BG (Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General) Hospital on May 1. He had been in home isolation after being released from the hospital. He said he had observed professionalism among the ID&BG doctors and nurses and this would help him handle patients at MCHK.
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