President’s Message
FACELESS SUPERHEROES
Last week my office boy had a fever. A chest scan showed that he had Covid + pneumonia and had to be checked into a hospital. Within 48 hours the hospital was running out of oxygen and had no supply of Remdisivir. As his health declined, he needed an ICU bed and none were available in his current hospital.
My entire staff, family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and even kind strangers online pitched in.
We found an ICU bed, an ambulance with oxygen supply and 2 doses of Remdisivir after thousands of calls over 2 days. We were just so lucky.
But throughout the whole ordeal the one thing that was always prevalent was the amazing resilience of every single person who answered my calls.
They were ALWAYS polite, ALWAYS apologetic if they couldn’t help, ALWAYS assured me they would get back to me, ALWAYS remembered my name when they called back, ALWAYS polite and empathic to my panic and patient with my list of questions, ALWAYS checked in when they had fresh supply in case I hadn’t managed to get it from a different source.
The BMC war-room called and gently guided me as I hunted through all the medical reports, noting all the details patiently. The doctor at the first hospital took time out of his overloaded schedule to explain to me exactly what medical terms I would need to convey to secure an ICU bed. He was also open to listening to what another doctor had recommended and even thanked me for giving him an alternative. The on-call doctor at the new hospital stayed in touch with me via WhatsApp till 10 pm so he could send me updates on the transfer. The ambulance service organizer, driver and coordinator were amazing, getting on conference calls at the drop of a hat, assuring me that they would carry extra oxygen to account for traffic and even called to tell me the patient was stable.
This was more than healthcare workers doing their job. These are men and women going out of their way to not just help but handhold in spite of all the trauma they witness and the pressures under which they work day-in and day-out.
I can never repay this generosity and kindness extended by these faceless superheroes. ‘Thank you’ seems just so inadequate.
Framroze Mehta
President