Kin still in hospital, bittersweet homecoming for discharged coronavirus patients

The man feels ‘fit and fine’ when it comes to his physical health, but cannot put aside the constant worry he has for his wife’s well being.




HAVING SPENT weeks quarantined in the austere wards of government hospitals, one would expect the discharged COVID-19 patients to relish their homecoming, but with close family members still hospitalised with the disease, three discharged patients from the Tricity are yet to rejoice their recovery.

“People have been asking me to send hopeful videos and messages about my recovery and spread it across the media, but I don’t feel like doing it because my wife is still in a hospital. I feel quite stressed and all I can think about how she is feeling while I am here comfortable at home,” says the 42-year-old resident of Mohali who was discharged from GMSH-16 Saturday. The man feels ‘fit and fine’ when it comes to his physical health, but cannot put aside the constant worry he has for his wife’s well being.

“She is completely asymptomatic; they should really just discharge her soon. Only her mental health is deteriorating at the hospital, she is completely miserable,” he says.

“As for tips for fighting the disease itself, I would say stay positive to begin with, and know that you can overcome it. Eat a lot of fruits, especially citrus filled and drink at least two liters of water a day,” advises the 42-year-old man from Mohali. Abide by rules and guidelines that the government has disseminated, adds the man, so that you don’t end up contracting an infection yourself and more importantly, passing it on to your loved ones.

Apart from the Mohali patient, two other patients from Chandigarh were released after testing negative for the disease on Saturday. One is the mother of the first patient reported in the city, a 23-year-old woman who had returned from the UK. Not only is the woman’s daughter still admitted at the hospital with the disease, but also her son. Upon being asked about how relieved she is about being discharged, the woman responded in a somber tone, stating that since bother of her children are still at the hospital, she does not feel truly relieved. Her daughter, who is currently completely asymptomatic, has been admitted to the hospital since the last nineteen days, while her son has been there for the past seventeen days.

As for the third patient to be discharged, the 22-year-old resident of Sector 30 in Chandigarh who had recently returned from Dubai, his mother is currently admitted at the isolation ward at PGIMER.

The man was almost completely asymptomatic by the time he was admitted to a shared isolation ward with his mother at GMCH-32, but was worried that sharing a room might add to his mother’s infection. His mother meanwhile, said she was happy for her son and felt comfortable in isolation at PGIMER, before excusing herself to eat lunch.

“We have to eat at the right time you see,” she says.

26-year-old doctor describes her recovery

Apart from the three patients discharged on Saturday, a 26-year-old doctor from Sector 19 in Chandigarh was discharged from PGIMER on Wednesday night.

The doctor claims that her symptoms began with high fever for 2-3 days, accompanied with dry cough and mild breathlessness.“By day 4 or 5, I started feeling better, but then again by days 7 I became really unwell with severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, chest tightness and fever,” explains the doctor.

During her 14 days in quarantine, the doctor practiced hand hygiene and wore masks. She believes she recovered mostly by taking adequate rest and drinking lots of water, accompanied with paracetemol to treat the fever.

“I still have cough, which may take some time to completely go away,” says the doctor, who is now home quarantined and is still maintaining distance from family members and practicing hand hygiene.

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