Staying honest towards my profession, I believe in myself,my dedicationand punctuality

Rekha Bhatta, Health Officer

I always believe in myself and stay honest with my work. I know my limitations and strengths were my imagination. I always imagined good for the society.

It was the eve of the 2019, the people of Wuhan, Huwai Province of China were preparing to welcome New Year 2020 with lots of joy. All of sudden a case of virus now globally known as COVID-19 was spotted. I was shocked to hear from the media that the risk of the corona virus infection was increasing worldwide. I then realized the ways of getting rid of this very virus; and suddenly imagined about the worst condition of my country in case of the positive cases of the virus occurred. I was hopeless at first, but I did not bear negative thoughts.

Seeing the well-off countries were unable to cope with the situation mainly a high number of human beingswere losing their precious lives , I was thinking of my country with limited resources.

While the government agencies in Nepal were trying their best to make it systematic, I heard that the government was preparing to repatriate 175 Nepalesemedical students from Wuhan, China. I returned home from work thinking it would be difficult for Nepalese to survive if the cases would be positive.

Being a staff member of Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), in this context, when the government decided to bring Nepalese medical students from China to Kharipati, Bhaktapur as an quarantine area.On behalf of NRCS,I got a chance to attend the meeting atNational Health Emergency Response Center at the Ministry of Health and Population, which was a stepping stone to plan for extending support at the quarantine, since everyone was sharing individual’s plan.

Thinking of supporting the Government in this initiative, we proposed NRCS’s support through the Red Cross Emergency Clinic (RCEC), which brought a smile in the faces of everyone attending the meeting.

I asked the clinical team on our roster to be ready sending them an alert message. The health workers assured to provide their services. Accordingly, we had mobilized a group of 20 people on February 14, 2020. Out of 20, eight were assigned to the Kharipati quarantine area, while the rest were deployed at the help desk in front of the Kharipati gate. On the first day, when we reached Kharipati, we were afraid that we would be moved somewhere. But I managed to keep my mind focused on the work.

Every day, the health workers on the roster of 2 people in the emergency clinic used to work there from 10 am to 5 pm and they used to go there time to time. Looking at the situation there, the people around had vacated the house and moved to the relatives’ house. The tenants had moved to another place and the rest were hoping that they would die. People on the roster of the RCEC were deployed there to rectify the situation, work for creating awareness and reducing stigma and discrimination.

It was very difficult to meet and aware them to apply preventive measures as working during an emergency is a difficult task. On the other hand, when I listened to the residents, I was worried that something would happen to us. I spent 17 days working in the Kharipati quarantine area. I calmed my mind that nothing would happen now, when the report of everyone in the quarantine came negative.

When I reached home from Kharipati, my neighbors looked at me with fear and anguish. I used to enter the house smiling at others saying that there was nothing toworry about. On the 18th day, after saying goodbye to all those who were kept in the quarantine, the representatives of the government bodies and our group entered the quarantine. Before going home, I developed symptom of common cold I had a strange fear.

I had my mind filled with destructive thoughts. My mind started developing bad thoughts as I was far from any of my family members. Lots of tears started rolling down from my eyes but no matter –that I had to serve the society. I had faith in God. I needed rest and did. In a few days, the flu subsided and I went to the office to strengthen my spirit.

I was again nominated to serve at Shukraraaj Tropical & Infectious Disease HospitalTeku. I was not fully prepared to work there but seeing all the doctors andnurses working there, I forgot to say “NO”. From our roster, 2 health workers and 3 of us worked inShukraraaj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital Teku every day. We were happy to give advice/counsellingto incoming visitors/patients but we had to hide the pain behind the happiness.

My confidence was increasing day by day. The 7thday service of the hospital was completed. Meantime, the second Nepali woman with the positive case was one of them who came to us for advice.

After listening to her, the hospital was requested to check the samples. Three days later I was preparing to go to office, suddenly the news came that the woman from France was found to have corona positive case. I was shocked to know that she was the woman who talked to us.

I was very upset and tormented by negative thoughts about what would happen. The reason for the fear was that we did not have personal protective materials and we did not care about maintaining physical distance whichshould be considered an important basis for positive case transfer.

I started isolating myself from others during my work. Even after that, service was provided for 7 days. As the case progressed, I started to worry about many things because we didn’t even have a single PPE set.

As we had to consult up to 80 people a day, the safety equipment was not complete, so I decided not to take any responsibility. Even in the event of a major epidemic, I continued to work.

I just did not want to exist but also wanted to do something meaningful. We had to serve people having safety equipmentscarce but we worked with full of precautions and I would always work for the betterment of the communities and for the sake of the people in need as a staff of NRCS with the best of my knowledge, skills and abilities.