Down but not out
By Deepak Kapoor, former Chairman, PwC in India
Not being able to sleep well during the whole night, thanks to an annoyingly persistent cough and fever, I gave up trying at 5am and thought of measuring the parameters, considered so vital nowadays. The oximeter showed my oxygen saturation at 90-91 and the digital blood pressure instrument indicated a 90-59. I panicked and in an effort to get up, ended up collapsing on the bed with sweat all over my forehead.
This was the night between the 4th and 5th day since the time I had developed fever, cough and body ache. My general physician on day 1 had thought it couldn’t be COVID-19 since we had been vaccinated (first dose) almost a month back. Those were the early days of second surge and one did not know that one could still contract the virus after the vaccination. Anyway, when the medicines prescribed by my GP didn’t help by day 2 and my pulse went up to a near alarming 110, I decided to take a RT PCR test on day 3, and lo and behold, I tested positive. While a COVID doctor prescribed a new set of medicines, my wife and mother also started showing some symptoms. They were immediately tested and the report declared them to be COVID positive as well.
So, on day 5 morning, after I temporarily recovered from my low BP and low oxygen and with the recently acquired knowledge that the only other occupants at home were also infected, I decided to get all three of us admitted in a hospital, which eventually turned out to be a wise decision. We were lucky to get three adjacent rooms in a decent hospital. It was the very next day - day 6, that my doctor could sense that I was a little more serious than I imagined and decided to put me on oxygen, as a precautionary measure. I learned that day that being put on oxygen support doesn’t necessarily translate to a worrisome condition - it helps your body to counter the disease if it goes to a higher level, which it did in my case.
The over stretched but friendly doctors and nurses took charge and put us on a focussed medicine regime with varying degrees of steroids and antibiotics etc for each of us. Among a host of drugs pumped into our body through the intravenous drip, there was the famous ‘Remdesivir’ which at that time was considered to be a wonder drug. We were on a five day course of Remdesivir and suddenly on the fourth day, the hospital informed us that they had run out of its stock. We learnt that the drug, in fact, was not available anywhere in NCR. Locked in a hospital room with two delicate tubes in my nostrils, I started reaching out to a few resourceful friends for help. Guess who came to my rescue - PwC! After seeing my message, Satyavati Berera, Rahul Garg and the PwC team went into a crisis mitigation mode, moved mountains and within a matter of two hours, the injections were delivered to me in the hospital! We will keep the story of how they managed this near impossible feat in an incredibly short time during the lockdown for another day, but their timely help reiterated my belief that PwC indeed stands for ‘People who Care’ not only for their employees but also for ex-colleagues!
To distract myself during hospitalisation, I got super involved in my work for “Save the Children”, an NGO I happen to be chairman of and the Rotary Club in trying to help COVID affected people and arranging plasma for the critically ill. Trust me, if your pain is manageable, distraction and keeping busy can go a long way in your recovery. I would say to all my friends reading this, if you are going through it, the last thing you need is news and social media - instead, any productive thing can give your brain a great booster, which is useful for your overall health. An occupied mind is also a healthy one.
The other learning is that no matter how much social media led information overload you may come across, be very careful in trying the “desi totkas” you see on Whatsapp messages. While one can try some non-invasive methods and I did try a few after ensuring their authentic sources… for God’s sake, please refrain from pumping lime juice down your nasal passage, for instance! Information will always be a dime a dozen, but this is not the time for experimenting.
I think if I look back at the entire experience, I have quite a few takeaways - I am glad that years of experience had already taught me to hold my nerves against adversity and that came handy. Secondly, it’s best to get medical help/opinion as soon as possible. Third, my immense gratitude for everyone who rallied to get me timely help - I can’t thank them enough. Also, please continue to get adequate and prescribed nutrition… your body needs the right food to fight COVID and get back to good health. Then, be at peace with having more than 20+ medicines a day - COVID control medicines, immunity medicines, support medicines - just take it in your stride and focus on getting well. Also, try and keep your mind positive. My only suggestion is, friends - believe in your recovery. I know the times are unlike any other and there is a lot of negative news all over but more often than not, there’s hope on the other side.
One last word of caution - after you turn COVID negative, hold the celebrations and continue to take all care and give adequate time to the recovery process. One is not done as yet! Please follow the slow post-COVID recovery protocol as advised. I am still on “watch”, one month after being declared COVID negative.
