Lonely and depressed: Life for patients in COVID wards not easy

Lonely and depressed: Life for patients in COVID wards not easy 

Isolation is making a few patients act strange, admit doctors; dead bodies are not cleared for hours, no info given on our relatives, lament those under treatment

Published: 28th May 2020 06:47 AM | Last Updated: 28th May 2020 01:50 PM 

A file picture of medical staff collecting swab samples at Chennai International Airport from an Indian citizen who returned from Dubai

By OMJASVIN M D

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Battling COVID-19 isn’t the only thing that patients are doing right now. The mental stress and anxiety is equally daunting. Speaking to Express, Deva*, a patient in his thirties, says he’s tired of staying away from his family members. “Please discharge me. Let me go home. I cannot take it anymore. I do not even know how long I will be here,” says the man, who has been in hospital for the last six days. 

Deva, a bank employee, was in the ICU and was shifted out of the ventilator only on Wednesday.“I neither know where my family members have been quarantined nor what they are doing. It is difficult to stop thinking,’’ he tells Express. The mounting mental trauma is culminating in suicidal tendencies in a few of them.

Since Tuesday, two people had taken the extreme step to kill themselves in two separate government hospitals. “I have not slept at all,” says Deva. “It feels overwhelming to be around so many patients. I am also worried about who all could have been affected because of me. I hope my wife and children are negative.” 

Selva*, in his fifties, says the overall atmosphere is morbid. “A patient, hardly 6-7 beds away, died and it took hours for the body to be shifted. Lying so close to a dead person was terrible. I could not stop thinking about when I would get to leave.” Doctors have also been witnessing these episodes.

“A patient in his fifties started to run up and down the room due to extreme stress. We struggled to hold him down and give him an injection,” says a doctor at the KMC. A lot of the stress originates from the fear of stigma they would have to face when they go back home, say the doctors.

“They start to think a lot about how they would be treated once discharged, or about the indefinite stay in ICU, or staying amid other sick patients,” says a task force member at Stanley. “They further lose hope when they find out that even doctors in the hospital have tested positive. Then they start pleading to be discharged.” Mental issues, doctors say, are not always obvious.

“The patient who killed himself at Stanley did not show any sign of mental health issues, nor his family tell us anything,’’ the doctor said. “For our part, we have been talking to the patients regularly to make them feel comfortable.” 

In the history of illnesses, this is probably the first time that family members are not allowed to visit, says doctor Poorna Chandrika, director of the Institute of Mental Health. “They are alone, and this makes them feel isolated and lonely.” She says people must slowly come out of the fear zone. “We have been two months into the pandemic, we need to move forward.”

*Name changed