Odisha-Born Prof Recounts Path To Recovery From COVID-19

New Delhi: The days were long and the nights were desolate at the hospital with the spectre of death hanging in the air.

He was sacred, apprehensive and spent a few sleepless nights in the beginning as the noises around played on his mind. But he hang in there, taking each day as it came. His grit paid off. The symptoms started to abate and a ray of hope shone through.

Finally after two weeks, he came out of the hospital fully cured of COVID-19.

Meet Ajit Mishra, Director of Institute of Economic Growth and Professor of Economics at University of Bath, UK. He was born in Balangir and spent his childhood there.

THE SYMPTOMS

His body temperature spiked on the evening he returned from UK after attending a few conference lectures. That was March 15. “The thermal screening at the airport had cleared me. At night, I had pretty high temperature and that set the alarm bell ringing,” he recounted.

The next morning, his secretary called up Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and he was taken there in an ambulance. “I think that was the safest thing to do because as a director of an institute, I meet so many people and my elderly parents also stay with me,” he said.

He was hardly six hours at home.

THE HARROWING EXPERIENCE

The scene at RML was frightening. The small corridor was chock-a-block with people waiting for COVID-19 tests . “It was not an ideal place for corona testing and I had my turn after a couple of hours. Since I had travelled to UK and had high temperature, they decided to immediately admit me to the isolation ward there,” Prof Mishra said.

The isolation ward at RML left a lot to be desired. “All suspected cases are put together there and there is every chance that the person, who clears the test, could contact the infection while staying in the ward. There were six beds with five occupants but no screens separating them. And I doubt if the distance of one metre between the beds was maintained. After two nights, I had to request for a screen,” he said.

The common washroom was another concern for him and he did not take shower for the four days he stayed there. “The doctors were very helpful and reassuring. However, the arrangements were ideal just for an overnight stay as one waited for the results,” he said.

The results came on March 19. He tested positive for COVID-19.

THE RECOVERY PROCESS

Prof Mishra was then shifted to Safdarjung Hospital as per the protocol. “Now, I had a separate room on the fourth floor of the hospital. There was excellent nursing care and nurses would check on patients four times a day,” he said.

However, the first few night were not easy. “I was scared that something terrible could happen, maybe some kind of chest pain and would enquire from doctors about the symptoms. I had to spend a few sleepless nights because of these apprehensions Fortunately, the physicality of the disease was not severe and I did not require critical care at any stage,” he said.

He kept a diary in which he would write down his thoughts for a couple of hours every day, spent time in reading books, spoke to his parents, wife and 16-year-old son in Bath and friends. “I strictly kept myself away from news as overdose of stories on how threatening this disease can be had already drilled fear into people. It was important for me to keep a mental balance,” said the 68-year-old.

The tension built up again close to the re-resting date on March 29. “We should be careful but not fearful. When I recovered, my wife felt that I did a pretty god job,” said Prof Mishra, who was discharged from the hospital on April 4.

His wife too had developed the corona infection, but recovered quickly. His elderly parents too were kept in quarantine as they had spent a few hours with him. “My cook who had served me breakfast that morning and her husband were also isolated at my place,” he said.

While he is following few more days of self-isolation at home till April 15, he is looking forward to going to his office to check some files and go for walks within the campus once he is free to step out of the doors of his house.