Dr. Vivek Saini, the Bosconian COVID Warrior has completed three rounds of posting in COVID ICU, each lasting for a month, at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, Delhi, which is currently the largest dedicated COVID hospital in India.
Dr. Vivek Saini, is a Don Bosco School, Delhi Alumnus of the batch 2009. He’s remembered fondly by his school teachers as the shy and introvert boy who loved to participate in as much as extra curriculars activities as possible. To date, he proudly maintains a beautiful display portfolio of all the certificates won by him during his student days. He received appreciations in the field of sketching, basketball, and table tennis. He’s an avid trekker and a semi professional travel photographer. His Instagram page called “Khanabdoshi” is almost like his alter ego.
After school, He pursued MBBS from the prestigious Maulana Azad Medical College and later on pursued Post graduation in Anaesthesiology and Critical care from the same. He’s currently working as a Senior Resident at the Lok Nayak Hospital, which is currently the largest dedicated COVID hospital in India. He has also worked with the Doctors without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières for a period of 10 months, during which he worked in remote peripheral health centres, trying to eradicate locally prevalent infections diseases in West Bengal.
As of today, he’s finished three rounds of posting in COVID ICU at LNJP, each lasting for a month. During these postings, he’s quarantined/self-isolated at accommodation provided by the Delhi government.
At ground zero, the duty hours, although rotational, are pretty erratic. Sometimes the shift starts at 3 am in the night and continues till 10 am in the morning. The worst part however is working while wearing the PPE kit. Many have fainted due to heat and dehydration while wearing it. Once you don the kit, you can’t eat, drink water, or even use the washroom till you properly doff and sterilize self. Additionally, the protective goggles and face shield get completely fogged due to the heat and moisture, making it even difficult to see by the end of duty. In such a condition, all healthcare professionals like Dr. Saini are putting in utmost care for the patients.
Dr. Vivek Saini says: “Working in the ICU has, so far been like a bag of mixed feelings, like an unpleasant roller coaster ride. There are days when unfortunate news has to be broken to several families, while on other days, the joy on the face of recovered patients is a blessing like a ray of hope. The work effort put in by the medical teams throughout the world may never truly be completely compensated.”
He truly believes, that despite our shortcomings, human beings are capable of incredible feat. These are undoubtedly difficult times. It’s also an opportunity for each of us to be the nicest version of ourselves. It’s times like these that decide how good and humane we truly are. As a message for the readers Dr. Saini stated: “The world shall recover from the pandemic soon. The tragic loss of those who’ve left us shall linger for long. But hopefully, we’ll make a better world with all that this pandemic has taught us.” A big salute to this ‘Bosconian COVID Warrior’.
Fr. Babu Varghese SDB