Doctors of NCR fight infection and personal odds to help Covid patients

Prayagraj: Amidst the raging Covid-19 pandemic, doctors too have been affected. Some have been infected while others have seen their near and dear ones contracting the infection. However, many of these doctors, including those employed in Prayagraj division of North Central Railways (NCR), continue to attend to their patients, many a time virtually, unmindful of their personal difficulties.
Dr Pervez Ahmad, senior divisional medical officer (DMO)-Prayagraj and nodal medical officer of Central Hospital-NCR remained at the forefront of war against Covid and has been on his toes since the pandemic set in. He has attended and treated hundreds of Covid patients in the last two months and is running the Covid OPD of the hospital attending to average of 150 patients per day.
Apart from his OPD hours, Dr Pervez is also attending around 100-150 telephone calls of patients a day.
“It hardly matters whether the call is early in the morning or at midnight, his tone and enthusiasm is always very encouraging. His caring attitude towards his patients always touches everyone,” said a recently recovered Covid-19 patient treated by Dr Pervez.
Dr Pervez’s father had to be admitted to SRN hospital owing to Covid related complications even as his wife and other family members also came down with Covid. But he continued his normal working at hospital and managed Covid clinic to the best of his potential with full dedication, shared principal chief mechanical engineer of NCR Kundan Kumar.
Deputy general manager of NCR Mannu Prakash Dubey also termed him a real warrior. Principal chief signal and telecom engineer Arun Kumar expressed his gratitude for the care provided by Dr Pervez during his Covid isolation period.
However, Dr Pervez brushes all praise aside. “Every doctor is doing what he/she can for the patients in these testing times and remaining true to the oath that they have taken,” said Dr Pervez, an alumnus of Manipal Medical College who after his OPD work for awareness generation regarding Covid regularly addressing railway staff and counselling them regarding dos and don’ts through webinars being organised by Prayagraj Division.
Another such ‘soldier’ from NCR is Dr Ashish Agrawal, who is managing the health unit of Central Hospital located at Subedarganj. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, his OPD is witnessing 175-200 patients per day.
Dr Ashish Agrawal, a paediatrician has managed hundreds of Covid patients in last two months alone. This is especially significant in the backdrop that he himself turned Covid positive and was forced to remain 20 days in home isolation recently, shared NCR CPRO Shivam Sharma.
For three days, he was in critical condition. But during his home isolation period also, he was giving medical consultation to 60-70 patients per day on his mobile phone including Covid positive paediatric patients, he added.
During this period, his elder brother who also was Covid positive turned serious with hematemesis (blood from gastrointestinal tract) and had to be admitted in hospital. Despite all odds on a personal front, he continued telephonic consultations to his patients and has now resumed his duties at his OPD.
“Dr Ashish has always been calm while interacting with patients. He speaks humbly on telephone after letting us convey our complaint,” said a traffic inspector of NCR whose son was down with Covid related symptoms.