Photo of this worn-out nurse shows health workers' fatigue in COVID fight

The pandemic, which still treads bold across the country even a year after its outbreak, has already taken its heavy toll on thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who have sacrificed their personal comforts to combat this menace. Though their contributions in the fight against the pandemic have been lauded by politicos, media and the public, the physical and mental struggles these 'corona warriors' have been facing for the last many months largely remain unnoticed.

Vandana Mahajan, a palliative care counselor, have taken to Twitter to share the grim picture of a COVID-19 hospital where, she claims, the staff seldom get time to even go to the loo. Mahajan, who was hospitalised for six days after contracting the virus, has also shared the photo of a visibly exhausted healthcare professional, wearing a PPE kit, resting inside a nursing room at the hospital.

“I had Covid and I was admitted for six days. This picture will stay with me. For the ones reading this tweet - they are humans too!  As a mental health professional, I couldn't help but be there for them,” Mahajan says in a tweet.

“I saw the hospital staff bearing the load of the damn virus!  I made conversations with the sisters and brothers....With the housekeeping staff...With the young doctors on duty there, with my consultant who came in too see me and support me,” she says in another tweet.

Mahajan points out how a health care professional wearing PPE kit finds it difficult to even go to the loo.

“For the ones who don't know -once the HCP  wear their PPE's they cant even go pass urine. They don't eat or drink for hours so that they don't have the urge to use the Loo. If its urgent, they go in a loo reserved for them and then they  have to get into new PPE's,” she says.

Mahajan has also shared the conversation she had with some of the nurses in the hospital.

“I asked a nurse on duty - how long have you been doing this? She said Since Covid hit. I have a son who stays with my parents. For the first few months of Covid I stayed in the hostel. I didn't go home. Now he has exams, so I finish my duty..go home teach,” she says in the tweet.

In another tweet she adds: “There is a mausi who gets a glass of water for me. I thank her and she says -no one has said that to me ever. And then she narrated the story of her life. How she has a family , how tough its been for her! 10 minutes later , we have formed a bond.”

“A sister told me that their biological clock has been disrupted. They have stomach problems, ulcers in their mouth and if one of them is menstruating , changing a sanitary pad is a humanly impossible task,” Mahajan writes.

The picture she posted has been widely shared on Twitter by many including industrialist Anand Mahindra.

“This picture will stay with all of us too. It will be one of the most eloquent visual records of both the tragedy & the quiet heroism provoked by the pandemic,” he tweets.