Knock\, knock COVID volunteer is here

But for these volunteers, their work is not only a point of pride but also one of difficulty and financial duress. Three such volunteers working with the Chennai Corporation take time out of their busy schedule to share what this work means to them and how they cope with the challenges that come along with that.

On April 5, Nirmal Dineshkumar started working with the Chennai Corporation for its door-to-door screening to identify COVID-19 patients. For the 33-year-old former bank employee, this was an opportunity to give back to society.

“At first, I took this job because there was no movement in space I was working in. I had to pay for my rent and sustain my mother and myself. Slowly, I began to realise that this was a way to give back to society. I became responsible for the neighbourhood I was surveying, and service has always been important to me,” he said.

Every day, Nirmal visits nearly 100 houses to check on the residents. This move did not come without its dangers, however. As the number of cases in the city rose, Nirmal’s mother began raising her concerns over her son going for this work every day.

“I go to households where there might be positive cases. However, that hasn’t stopped me. I remain as safe as I can, and that’s the best I can do. I’m also young, so even if I contract the virus, I’ll recover. And if I don’t, then the sacrifice would be for a noble cause of keeping other people safe, and I’m okay with that,” he said.

Despite initially signing up for the work for only three months, Nirmal is continuing with this work for nearly six months into the lockdown. The locals he visits every day have become familiar faces that he constantly reassures, despite their fears. His only hope is that people remain safe in their day-to-day functioning as the lockdown regulations are eased and life goes on.

On March 25, when the lockdown was announced, several people found themselves without a means of income, trapped in their homes. This was the case of 21-year-old Shiva, with his mother, father and older brother unable to go for work.

“There was no way to meet our needs, our rent, our food... My father and mother are aged and this virus can affect them the hardest. My brother was a mechanic and had no work at all. So, when I came to know that there was such a job, I took it to help sustain my family,” he said.

Shiva visits nearly 150 houses every day. He wakes up at 6 am, rides to his designated zone, parks his motorcycle on one end of the street, and begins visiting houses. His day ends at 4 pm, after which he logs out and goes home to rest.

"It’s tiring. I have to check in on so many people every day. I’ve been walking so much and in this heat, it has become very difficult. But I have to do it for my family. Of course, I’m scared of someone in my zone testing positive. I have a family waiting for me at home. But we are badly in need of money,” he said.

Before the pandemic hit the nation, Shiva’s family was building a house in Cuddalore, his father’s native town. But the virus, and the lack of finances, has thrown a spanner into their plans.

“The house is built but we have so many things to pay for. We were hoping to make it our home soon. But we can’t even move in there going by this current lockdown. Now, with inter-district travel restrictions a little more relaxed, we want to do a quick, small ceremony. But I’m hoping that my family can return to their work soon,” he said.

When Kesavardhini M first went to her assigned zone in Nungambakkam, she felt a little nervous. The streets were deserted save for a few children playing or the occasional street dog. On her first day, she felt nervous to knock on a stranger’s door and ask them personal questions. With over 250 houses to take care of single-handedly, the 26-year-old walked in the blistering summer heat to check on the residents who slowly began warming up to her.

“Eventually they would open the door and say, ‘Ah, you’ve come. Let me get you some coffee’. Many of them spoke to me kindly and would ask about my family. Since I have a son, they would ask if someone was looking after him while I worked. There was one aunty who would always give me lunch because I don't go home to eat,” she said.

Things were fine until Kesavardhini discovered the first positive case. It was two young men, who had visited a nearby camp to get tested. Then, a girl in the building also tested positive.

“It’s my role to inform people and tell them to go to the hospital. It’s an uncomfortable thing, to tell someone that they have tested positive. The girl’s mother scolded me. She was so rude to me and asked: Do you not have any other business than to tell people that they’re sick?" she said.

With the assistance of local police, Kesavardhini was able to convince the girl and her mother to go to the hospital. But that was when the locals began turning on her. When the ambulance came to pick up another positive case in the area, a crowd gathered around, and once the ambulance left, the locals began shouting at her, blaming her for the cases.

“They said that I was visiting them and bringing the disease. I’m just trying to get my salary, I’d tell them, and laugh it off and leave. But then there was this one man who began insulting me in the middle of the road. He said that I was being paid to falsely say that people are positive. He called me names. I was so hurt, I began crying,” she said. That day, she requested to be transferred to another neighbourhood.

Now working in another part of Nungambakkam, Kesavardhini is spared from this type of verbal abuse. “The people in the new neighbourhood are kind. They comply with what I ask of them. But I had made a bond with the people in the previous area, over the three months I worked there. Shall I tell you the funniest thing? The boys who now visit the old area tell me that the residents sing my praises to them. It’s funny because they treated me so badly in the end,” she said.

Life goes on for these volunteers, who continue to visit households and check up on the residents. All they have to say is to stay safe, be careful, and be kind when they visit. The pandemic continues, and so do their work.

Their moments between the home and the hospital are filled with pressure. Covered from head to toe in Personal Protective Equipment, paramedics working in the city fight the dual battle of ensuring the patient making it to the hospital and making sure they stay safe.

The last six months have been a wild ride for these medical professionals, both in the ambulance and out. When the city was hit by the virus and went into lockdown, the paramedics took to the streets, but things were different right from the start. “We usually wear a certain amount of protective equipment — masks, coats, and gloves. But this time, the amount of safety precautions we take has increased. Ensuring that we are safe and the ambulance in which we transport patients is properly sanitised has never been so important,” said N Nagendiran, an EMT with GVK EMRI, which runs the 108 ambulance service in the city.

Working in the city with such protective gear has the merit of safety, but the demerit of strain. According to Manoj Kumar, a paramedic with the Emergency Paramedics division of Kauvery Hospital, the sweltering heat in the city led to suffocating situations in their gear, parts of which had to be replaced if it was damp as that reduced the effectiveness of the safety equipment.

As the first point of contact with the patient and by extension the virus, there was a lot of strain on them professionally and personally, said the paramedics. “We had a case in Madurai, a 59-year-old patient. It usually takes us eight hours to go there, but the ambulance driver got us there in five hours. He had breathing troubles, and those at home were unsure if he could make it to the Chennai hospital. As emergency responders, we need to do all we can to make sure that nothing happens to a patient in transit. I told the team at home not to worry, made him sit in a 90-degree position to help his breathing, and the driver got us back to the city in four and a half hours. There was a lot of pressure to make sure he was okay at the time,” said Kumar.

For Janakiram Santhi, assistant nursing director and paramedic at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram, the struggle was more personal. The moment the city went under lockdown, she sent her family to stay with her daughter. “Our facility was identified to respond to COVID-19 cases right from the start, and I knew I would be coming into contact with many cases. My family’s safety is important, so I stayed at our home while they were safe at my daughter’s place,” said the 58-year-old.

Despite their many years of working in the field, the paramedics have never seen such a situation before. The unpredictable nature of the virus did frighten Nagendiran at first, he says. “I was scared because I was worried about my family’s safety. I stay with my sister and her family, and she has an infant grandson. I used to feel a burst of fear just before every case, but now, over the last six months, that fear has completely gone. I’m relying on my ten years of experience to help me through this,” said the 34-year-old.

As the months dragged on, cases in the city continued to increase. The months of April to June were when the cases began to spike exponentially, and thus, paramedics saw more cases. “During those months, I went from working eight-hour shifts to working 15-hour shifts. We were running non-stop, and had very few opportunities to rest between calls,” said Kumar.

Their main focus was to stay safe, so that they may continue helping others, but on May 12 – ironically the day of International Nurses Day – Santhi tested positive for COVID-19. But, the nurse of over four decades refused to stop working. “I was running a temperature and had a lot of breathlessness. I had a continuous cough, which was difficult because I was still attending to calls from the hospital and the Nodal Officer. It took me one month to recover, and then I discovered that I had contracted diabetes as a result of the infection,” she said.

But Santhi decided not to tell her family at first, to spare them the trouble of worry. Over two days, she eased the news to them gently. Nagendiran shares that he doesn’t talk about work to his family, to avoid worrying them. Kumar says that he assures his wife, every morning, that he will return safely.

“I was the first woman from my village — back in the 70s, mind you, when women were supposed to stay indoors — to get an education and become a nurse. Service is the first, second, and third priority in my life. My personal life comes last,” said Santhi.