What It Was Like Working As A Doctor In a Pandemic

Difficult Times pass and What’s Left Is Memories

It was strange…

I am a Paediatric Doctor who — at the time of the Pandemic — used to work in one of the Hospitals in the East of England region.

If you have been following the Coronavirus news over the last few months, you probably know that the United Kingdom wasn’t one of the nations that properly dealt with this pandemic. But the thing is, no one tells you how or what they did wrong.

As the lockdown measures have been announced, and my hospital serves a densely populated area. It was expected that we will be having a fair amount of positive coronavirus patients. Imagine someone telling you there is a huge monster coming towards your house, and you have no clue from where it is coming from, or how big or nasty it is, how would you prepare?

The Hospital management went through all the possible wards that could be converted into an Intensive care ward. They started looking into the oxygen and air connections and ensure the rapid transition of all the wards that have been selected. The staff has been redistributed to help those with experience in managing intensive care patients. A widespread intense teaching program was held to teach every doctor of the basics of Intensive care. All the admin staff has been asked to stay at home to minimize the risk of infection. And everyone was rushing trying to secure personal protective equipment for the staff.

In probably a week, like a small army, all the resources have been directed into fighting an unknown enemy. The departments have been restructured in one way or another to accommodate this new pandemic that no one had any solid evidence — at that point — about its nature or how it spreads.

I can remember many moments throughout the pandemic, but I will highlight a few that caught up my mind the most:

It is not an easy feeling when you hear that one of your colleagues in ICU got infected and has been ventilated for almost a month, or that another colleague who has been extubated but his lung function indicates that he will likely never be able to work again.

There was always that moment of relief when you have been tested as part of the staff screening and you turned out to be positive — you already had the infection at one point… or that blink of happiness if the antibody test was negative — with a tiny dark thought that you can still get it and get severely unwell.

In my department, Paediatrics, A baby gets to the hospital with extreme illness and high temperature and you discuss with your colleagues and consultants who all say “This is definitely COVID-19” and it turns out to be something else.

Yet another child presents with unusual symptoms and as part of the admitting protocol, he gets a routine COVID-19 swab that turns out to be positive!

There were those shifts were you were supposed to have 3 other Doctors with you but you end up with one due to sickness and self-isolation.

There were these moments of depression when you have finished work and the whole city feels like a zombie city with no one on the streets at any point in time.

There were these moments of feeling imprisoned that I can’t travel to see my family and close ones.

As everyone stayed at home, the slight change that happened to me was that I got off to work a little late than usual as all the roads had negligible traffic in the rush hour.

I don’t think the reaction of the United Kingdom as a whole and the healthcare system specifically should be described as bad. You can only argue that it would have been much more effective if every step of it happened maybe about 2–3 weeks earlier in the pandemic timeline.

I think If there is anything that should inspire you, It is that in multiple places on earth, there was a group of doctors and scientists who were basically “hustling” in an attempt to answer a lot of questions about the pandemic. And in every hospital, there were a lot of unnamed heroes who decided to show up to work every day knowing that they get sick or worse, infect their families.

I got caught up in a conversation lately, where one non-Key-worker was envying a “Key-worker” for the fact that his income did not get affected because he did not decrease his working hours, while at the same time, The Key-worker was envious as he wished he stayed home with his family. I think this is the “It’s always greener on the other side” effect.

I love to say that, I made lasting friendships with the colleagues I worked with during the pandemic. I managed to learn from everyone, and I taught a few as well.

I think me — like many others — have learned many lessons during this pandemic, but If I had to highlight one, It would be:

Don’t take your life for granted.