Shrushti Rane – The Corona Warrior

Shrushti Rane recalls, “During the early lockdown, I was at home just like everyone else, waiting for my post-graduation admission process! As the days passed by, I felt like a soldier at home during the war. I wanted to put my skills to use as a Doctor. My family was scared, but they knew it is my duty. 

On the 2nd day itself I wore a PPE kit, to admit a COVID patient, she suddenly got breathless while in the ambulance and panicked. After all, she missed her family, because her husband cried when she left, it took a while, but I stabilized her. She couldn’t see me, yet she told me that I look like her grandkid, and I hope she could see me smiling behind that PPE kit.

All the patients keep asking me when we can go home, tell them, and finally have some time to rest after working all your lives, and then they just smile.

The other day, I had a patient with a fever. He had traveled to China in January and various places in India before the lockdown. He also got himself tested twice but was negative. He was paranoid about why he isn’t positive. He was so anxious that he started crying, I realized, more than any medicine he needs some positivity and assurance.

There is no need to be paranoid, but people need to be aware and conscious at times.

There are many elderly who are getting infected just because their children/grandchildren are carelessly roaming, and I feel bad to see them suffering.

In the last month, I’ve worked amidst COVID positives and COVID suspects, and sooner I realized that we are safe as long as we are mindful of where we are touching and how hygienic we are.

The only message I want to give through this story is to stay indoors and stay safe.

Even after the lockdown is relaxed, let us adapt to this new way of living responsibly.”