Russia-trained doctor is voice of Uzbek man in Covid ward

Noida: When Dr Sameer Zahid was pursuing his medicine training in Russia, little did he know that his knowledge of Russian would come in handy here in Noida. Calls to his cellphone about emergency cases are nothing new. But this time, the patient did not require his knowledge of medicine, but the ability to communicate.
On Friday, Dr Zahid received a call from Sharda Hospital that he needed to talk to a patient from Andijan, a city in Uzbekistan. The 52-year-old man had come to Noida alone last week for a kidney transplant surgery at Sharda Hospital. Tests conducted as part of procedure found the man had Covid. He was shifted to the isolation ward on May 27 and the surgery was deferred.
“His reports came late on May 26 and he was shifted here the next day. Since then, he is under observation in the ICU. As preventive measure, we treat our ICU patients as potential Covid carriers. He is a chronic kidney patient and needs dialysis twice a week,” said a spokesperson for Sharda Hospital.
But apart from the patient’s health issues, doctors at Sharda were faced with another challenge. The man did not Hindi or English, and the translator he had hired for his stay in India had gone incommunicado ever since he tested positive for Covid.
Signs and gestures did help Sharda staffers fulfil the Uzbek man’s basic needs of food and water, but communication with doctors about his health became an arduous task.
Someone then pointed out that Dr Zahid had spent a few years in Russia. Out went a call to his phone, and the next moment, the attending consultant was on a video chat with the Uzbek patient.
Dr Zahid said one of the patient’s major concerns was that the food he was getting at the hospital was not to his liking. “He was very uncomfortable initially because he couldn’t speak English or Hindi and found it difficult to explain anything to his attendants. However, he’s better now that he could finally talk to somebody. He asked for different kinds of home-cooked food. But such food is not provided at the hospital here and they are not even healthy for his condition. So we have provided a few alternatives. He also asked for a blanket. We are now available on video call whenever he needs to talk,” Dr Zaida said.
According to the doctor, the patient has comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension, apart from a chronic kidney ailment. “He is in the ICU and needs oxygen support periodically. The renal transplant can now only be discussed after his treatment for Covid is complete. For now, he is responding well to the treatment that is being given to him,” he added. Officials at Sharda said some of the patient’s relatives had approached the Uzbekistan campus of the hospital on Saturday and were informed about his condition.