The CT scan had shown her heart was all white as she was not getting enough oxygen and she knew that she would not make it. She was right
It was a time of uncertainty and fear; no one knew what each day would bring.
It was the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Victor Ng'ani decided to rent a room for himself away from his family. He was afraid.
“I was so scared of infecting my family that I considered renting a single room elsewhere in order to keep them safe, but my wife would have none of it,” he said.
Ng'ani is the head of clinical services at Ruai Family Hospital and the founding chairman of Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.
Medics at the frontline battling the pandemic with no cure often felt their blood run cold.
Some were so scared that they sent their children away, moved out of their homes or avoided any physical interaction with their families.
By September last year, 50 health professionals had died of Covid while more than 7,000 had been infected.
Doreen Adisa Lugaliki was the first Kenyan doctor to die of Covid.
Ng’ani tearfully recounted when he watched a woman who had just given birth say goodbye to her husband as she knew that her time was up.
“Pregnancy placed women at risk even without other underlying medical conditions. The worst part was watching a woman, lying on her deathbed, tell her husband that now he had to do it alone,” he said.
“The CT scan had shown her heart was all white as she was not getting enough oxygen and she knew that she would not make it. She was right.”
Tending to his first Covid patient, Ng’ani said he had to remove the personal protective equipment he was wearing as he was sweating profusely, his glasses were foggy and his concentration was low.
“I knew it was a health risk but I would not have been able to help a patient in that spacesuit. I had worn the protective gear and within five minutes I was sweating like a pig, and from that moment I decide to use the normal surgical gowns,” he said.
There are things we bottle up and it has been worse during the pandemic. It is therefore great to be brought together, where we can share, laugh and eat together
The doctor said he came face to face with severe cases that left him doubting the value of his work as an experienced doctor in critical care.
“When you have to put a ventilator and do a CT scan, your heart sinks as you wonder how that person is even alive. These are young, energetic persons looking up to you to save their lives. It was a difficult time,” Ng’ani said.
He would get even more distressed when, after attending to critical patients, he would meet people who believed Covid was a myth.
“A lot of people have turned around today but in the beginning, people watched videos of white people on social media claiming that Covid was a pharmaceutical scheme meant to make money and government propaganda. That really made my heart sink,” Ng’ani said.
Two years on, it was pleasant that Café Deli, a city eatery, chose to appreciate medics for their work.
On Valentine’s Day CEO Obado Obadoh hosted health workers and caregivers for brunch and roses at one of his eateries.
“A man who calls others to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for us to do so,” Obadoh quoted novelist Chinua Achebe.
“We recognise your sacrifices, dedication and resilience in helping the entire nation deal with such a novel and deadly disease”.
Obadoh said despite cutting the flow of funds on Valentine’s Day, sharing a meal with a group of select individuals helps Café Deli connect with the community, a core value of the restaurant.
“We are operating at about 65 per cent of our revenue and therefore we need every cent we can possibly get. We, however, cannot afford to hold off our culture of sharing, which defines us,” he said.
Café Deli also provided meal vouchers to the Caregivers Association of Kenya, whose members could not make it due to the nature of their work.
Dr Charles Kyengo, a representative of the association, said family caregivers are often so consumed by their responsibilities they barely get time out to refresh.
“You forget about yourself and sink in caregiver’s guilt. When you buy yourself coffee, you feel guilty that the money would have been used on drugs or the food should have been for the sick,” he said.
Kyengo thanked the restaurant for the kind gesture that he said reminded them that they matter and are loved.
Catherine Brenda, a public health officer at the Infectious Diseases Unit at KNH, said it was hard watching colleagues succumb to the disease.
"It was painful handling cases of colleagues. We have colleagues who dropped dead in the line of duty. That was the most traumatising thing," she said.
The determination to make a difference, knowing that everyone looked up to them, is what, she said, kept them going.
Kenya Medical Association president Onyino Were said healthcare workers face a lot of hardships, which they keep to themselves.
“There are things we bottle up and it has been worse during the pandemic. It is therefore great to be brought together, where we can share, laugh and eat together,” he said.
Agnes Ndege recalled how scared she was when she first encountered a Covid-19 patient. She refused to get into the room where he was isolated.
“I had heard so many scary things about Covid-19 that the thought of getting inside was unfathomable,” she recounted.
Ndege said it took the intervention of her supervisor, who went with her into the room and showed her that the patient was just like other patients who had suffered infectious diseases.
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