Dr. Vidushi Pradhan

“I moved to London when I was 14 years old. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. I never dwelled on the thoughts of becoming a doctor, because my mother was one. But everyone wanted me to pursue medical, and such pestering made me a rebel and I started avoiding it altogether. 

Once when my mum forced me to organise some work placements in a hospital; there, I realised that I actually like being in that surrounding. So, I took up medicine, completed my degree and now here I’m as a medic. I work in Hillingdon Hospital, the closest hospital to Heathrow Airport. I look after unwell patients who require admission to hospital in the Emergency Department. To be honest, I didn’t take COVID-19 very seriously in the beginning, because I felt like it was mainly spreading in China. 

I remember witnessing my first case, she was a forty-nine-year-old midwife and we had to take her to the ICU. That’s when I became scared and realised that we have to battle this pandemic together. My family didn’t hesitate or feel panicky when they got to know that I have to be there at the forefront, because they knew it is my job to serve the people and I had to do it. The very first thing was to prepare myself mentally so that I could be calm at all times regardless of the severity of the situation, and then I set for the hospital.

One day, I started feeling very tired after a 12 hour shift so as I got home, I realised that I had a temperature. The following week was horrible, I was in bed with constant fevers and sweating. I was sure that I was COVID positive so constantly kept monitoring myself and my breathing, which probably wasn’t helping much. Luckily, I never had to be admitted to hospital. I returned back to work after seven days off. I probably should’ve taken a few more days off to rest, but I felt very guilty as the hospital was very busy and staffs were trying their best to cope up with the demands of the situation.

I see many patients getting admitted and discharged each day and there are these two instances where my heart sank. First, when I had to video call my patient’s two sons, so that they could see her and informed them that their mother was going to the ICU and none of us knew that it was probably the last time they spoke to their mother, before she was intubated. Second, I called up a patient’s daughter to inform her that her mother has passed away. She could not come to the hospital to pay her last respects and I felt so despondent. Gradually, our patients in the hospital are recovering, and we are not seeing much cases anymore. Lastly, I would like to say that we’re in this together so keep your hopes up, stay at home, and eventually it will pass.” – Dr. Vidushi Pradhan [23/05/2020].