Yes you read it right, the life of a doctor is not merely a path of roses and petals. It is an amalgamation of pride, respect, admiration, insult, prejudice and of course combating hate spewing and bigotry. Oh yes it is! Believe me any budding young doctor would agree with me on this. Our lives is a rollercoaster ride dealing with all this and of course with our own professional difficulties, odd work timings, sleepless nights, unfavorable working environments and to top it all up, under paid wages.
Amidst all this we ought to fight through our way amongst the toppers of our own fraternity to become the sole bread winners of our families. Yes majority of the doctors who come out of primary MBBS degree are from the middle and lower classes. We ought to fight through hell a lot of competition to become what we are, and not all of us can afford a fancy mobile phone, or expensive condos, or a dinner at a fancy multi cuisine. YES! All your English Netflix serials are a huge illusion. At least that is the way it is in our so called diverse nation, where equality, respect for fellow brethren, etc are just mere degrees behind the country’s name and are non existential in reality.
The plight of doctors in my state is even worse, right from the days of receiving our primary bachelor’s degree we are put through situations that no ordinary person would be asked to face or rather would be successful in facing. The post graduates in major intuitions are put through elaborate working hours where they sweat it out with extreme difficulty. An explanation stating these are small hurdles in the way of grooming us in becoming a better doctor in the future is a mere reconciliation to extract the maximum outta us while we are available.
The current covid crisis has swept the working class postgraduates, interns and residents off their feet as it has made their job several notches tougher. Because now, In addition to the already existing elaborate and misguided work timings combined with the poor quality of mess food and the old wrecked hostel they are forced to live in, now their work place happenings is complicated additionally by wearing a PPE(personal protective equipment) suit. The minimum duration of duty wearing a ppe would be about six hours and believe me it is a mammoth task to remain inside it for 6 whole hours. Imagine staying in a closed space for hours together without taking a drink or taking a leak! It is humanely impossible. People who harass and blame doctors, stating inefficiency in managing a covid case as a reason for the death of their kith and kin should actually try this at home, yes I mean that! I do not mean wearing a PPE but try walking from room to room for 6 hours straight without fulfilling your thirst centres or taste buds or your bladder!!
That is precisely what we do! Performing ward works, rounds and attending to the sick and needy wearing a PPE suit is not walk on the cake, yet we do it! We have been doing it every single day for the last 6 months persistently, combating the invisible virus which has taken the path of hell to bring upon us suffering or death. No amount of appreciation, incentive, or your vessel clanking or your diya lightings would make our lives any better or make our sufferings any lesser. Ask any doctor who is working in a covid centre right now on, what is their wish for the near future would be. Their replies in unison would be: ” we wish to get outta the PPEs and N95 masks once in for all and live a normal lives. That is what we are going through! All we demand in return from the people is a little respect while addressing us, a little empathy when the extent of the disease goes beyond the scope of our best possible management, a little space for cremating our brothers who succumb to the virus while saving your life, a little space for our resident doctors to stay in your neighborhoods, that is all!
Working in a small covid centre I go thorough immense sufferings which goes beyond any normal humans understanding, but I would always wake up the next day even stronger and even better than the previous day thinking about my fellow brethren, working in huge covid centers where they are put through worse.
We are all sailing in the same boat brothers, cos covid19 knows no geographic, social or professional barriers. Yet we remain perched on the front lines with the PPEs, not just to protect ourselves but to keep ourselves ready for the next set of hundred odd cases that’s about to hit the casualty and suit up to wage another battle against the invisible.
In this battle the plight of a surgeon in particular is a peculiar one. We surgeons are trained to attain the ultimate three all during our residency, viz Eagles eyes, lady’s finger, and a lions heart. We are made into the ultimate endurance material to withstand hour long surgeries right from word go. We are given the toughest job of holding the retractors for 6 to 8 hrs long for major surgeries and the bed side duty that follows that night is all together a different story. How has covid changed our life’s?? Well imagine having a masters in arts and being asked to construct a bridge which clearly is a job of a civil engineer. That for you folks is the precise explanation of our stand right now. It has been 6 months since I placed my scalpel on a surgical case and my heart yearns for that and that only. Surgery for me is not another ordinary field, it is my life’s passion, my life’s ultimate desire, the very juice that keeps me alive. Yes! this is no exaggeration, there are people like me whose interest for surgery goes way beyond our interest for studying medicine developed. My own father is my primary inspiration and then there is this huge list of doyens who steered my life towards becoming the surgeon I am today.
No matter what is thrown at us, no matter how divided we may seem as a fraternity, when it come to covid we are all united and there is no barrier of any kind that parts us and we pledge to raise as one in unison against this covid19 pandemic, not just for ourselves but for the millions out there, whose life we consider our priority one at all times.
Thank you,
Yours sincerely
A surgeon.
Ps. Views are personal.