Ahmedabad: For last of Covid patients, the 2nd wave still persists

AHMEDABAD: Even as the city breathes easy with the second wave of Covid-19 ebbing, the fight for life continues for the 65-year old man who is on ventilator support at Bopal ICU. He is the only one Covid-19 patient on ventilator in Ahmedabad as on Tuesday.

“The patient has been hospitalized for the past 35 days and on ventilator support due to Covid complications,” said Dr Niket Shah of Bopal ICU.
In another private hospital, two patients on the ventilator in Covid ward got discharged late on Monday evening. They have been put on oyygen support to recover further from the viral illness. In all, the city has three patients on Tuesday morning – two others on oxygen supply.
In Civil Hospital, the number of Covid patients under treatment was 23 – the lowest ever. Majority have been battling for life for more than 15-20 days. Just two months back, the biggest Covid hospital in the city had long queues outside.
Dr Anish Chandarana, vice-president of Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA), said that his hospital had two of the last three Covid patients on ventilators.
“One patient had a hospitalization period of 20 days. In his late fifties with comorbidities, his lungs were badly affected and thus he needed ventilatory care. He was discharged on one liter oxygen to recuperate from home,” Dr Chandarana said. “The other patient in sixties had an erratic pulse rate as one of the effects of Covid and he needed respiratory support for about 13 days. He also got stable and got discharged.”
The last of Covid patients battling the viral disease in government and private hospitals have been there for more than a fortnight. They have the impact of Covid that needs hospitalization and care – a phenomenon identified as ‘Long Covid.’
Dr Kartikeya Parmar, in-charge of the Covid Hospital at Civil Hospital, said that out of the 23 patients with the hospital, 95% are there for over 15-20 days. “Majority are middle-aged men with comorbidities whose lungs were severely impacted by the infection and need long-term respiratory support,” he said.
Dr Bharat Gadhvi, president of AHNA, said that now it’s in the hands of the citizens to decide the course of the pandemic. “We must not invite the third wave by our reckless behaviour – we have seen the worst of the pandemic, and we don’t want to revisit the phase,” he said. “I would request the government to now start contact tracing of all new cases and genomic sequencing to give us some early warning.”