Kasaragod, Apr 19: Kasaragod, Kerala's COVID-19 hotspot, is the only district in the southern state lacking adequate health infrastructure.
In spite of treating the highest number of COVID-19 patients in the state with meagre infrastructural facilities and even without the support of a medical college in the north Kerala district, no deaths have been reported due to coronavirus.
The state health department views the performance of M Kunhiraman and his team, consisting of Janardhana Naik and Krishna Naik, at the General hospital in Kasaragod as a success story.
"Not only did they control the situation quickly with minimum infrastructure, they also started turning out a large number of negative cases within a few weeks and creditably ensured zero mortality.
This can be showcased as a best global model," Chairman of the Information Education and Communication (IEC) Committee and Project Director Kerala State Aids Control Society, R Ramesh said.
Recalling the ordeal, Janardhana Naik said his first major challenge was the physical examination of a patient with suspected COVID-19.
"Even with the PPE kit, nobody knew how effective they were and it took a whole 30 minutes to wear them properly.
But as time passed, we got accustomed to it," he said.
The traditional method of dealing with a patient involved knowing his or her history, observation and physical examination.
For hundreds of years, the hands-on body approach has been the soul of the doctor-patient relationship -- taking the pulse, tapping on and listening to the chest, feeling lumps.
With the onset of COVID-19 all that has changed.
"In fact, the whole exercise was fraught with grave risks because everything connected with COVID-19 was new.
Doctors have to keep a distance even though the physical examination wearing a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is difficult.
Sounds from the body are inaudible, vision is blurred through the smog-covered goggles and a stethoscope seldom has any use," Janardhana Naik said.
It was from March 15 that the hospital started receiving COVID-19 patients, primarily from Dubai.
By the time the first person came, the hospital was ready for him.
Soon, patient numbers began to swell and in a couple of weeks they reached about 91.
From then on, it was teamwork.
Committees were formed for each and every task, including the help desk, IT, treatment, medical board, training, food, waste disposal and data maintenance.
Initially, patients had many misgivings about the hospital.
"Some were disillusioned and even aggressive. Some were not happy with the facilities the hospital had to offer.
But gradually through good treatment and counselling by a psychiatrist, who visited the hospital on alternate days, the confidence and mood of the patients changed and they became friendly with the staff," Naik elaborated.
Counselling was also given to the concerned family members of the patients.
Besides treatment, the medical staff had to spend a considerable amount of time clearing the doubts of patients.
When they got discharged some patients insisted on seeing the faces of the medical staff, who till then were anonymous entities covered from head to toe.
Some even wanted to take selfies with them.
However, the medical team politely turned down their requests and preferred to remain hidden in their work attires.
The mood of the patients also rubbed off on the doctors and hospital staff.
All the physicians and hospital staff are now more confident of dealing with contagious diseases after treating COVID-19 patients.
"Our previous experience of treating H1N1, Chikungunya and Dengue cases helped us a lot.
Words of encouragement from the Health Minister K K Shailaja, Health Principal Secretary Dr Rajan N Khobragade and Health Services Director Dr Sarita R L gave us the impetus to build up confidence.
Moreover, the field health workers did a wonderful job in containing the viral spread," Naik added.
As the number of coronavirus cases rose, the state government on April 5 deputed a 26-member medical team from Thiruvananthapuram to set up a COVID-19 hospital in the district.
They turned a block of the under construction Government Medical College as a hospital-like facility, setting up a 200 bed facility to treat coronavirus patients.
Comments
Hello there! I could have sworn I've visited your blog before but after going through
some of the posts I realized it's new to me. Anyhow, I'm certainly happy I discovered it and I'll be bookmarking it and checking back frequently!
My web blog - traffic monsoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRAd4-scako
Thank you so much Lyvia for the clarification.
This is indeed a good initiative. Let us unite and unitedly let us strive for the development of our city.
All the best moms!
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group.We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on cast religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts .Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group. We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on caste, religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts. Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group.We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on cast religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts .Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group.We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on cast religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts .Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group.We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on cast religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts .Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Hi Everybody... I am one of the members of this group. I see there are a few things that we need to clarify . This is not an \ELITIST\" group.We could entertain only the first 30 requests.. We also encourage mothers to have their own meet ups. We have thousands of mothers in the group from different back grounds who are utilizing the selfless services provided by many of the mothers in our region. There is no bar from joining this group based on cast religion economic standards or any other parameter . Our sincere belief is that mothers can and have been making a change in this world and we want to facilitate this in our home in a more evident way, ie Coastal Karnataka. There are a lot of well wishers in our region who do a lot of charitable acts. But unless we personally see it we dont get involved or motivated enough to carry on such acts .Getting people to our roots before the advent of social media of meeting each other, talking to each other to get more connected and have a personal and human touch is one of the ways to a more integrated and understanding society . Please let us now if you have more queries."
Rich Mothers of Mangalore
What about Fathers of Mangalore.
Pity for Poor fathers.
Good one. Let it continue to be non-religious, non-political and non-profitable...
The meeting invite was open to all the 9000 mothers on the group regardless of their family backgrounds. However the first 30 registrations were suposed to be part of the meet up.
ONCE PROPHET MOOSA CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN
ALLHA TOLD TO MOOSA (AS) MOOSA BE CAREFULL NOW ABOUT URSELF BECAUSE
U DONT HAVE HAND TO PRAY FOR U BEC UR MOTHER IS ALREADY DEAD...
MORAL WEN MOTHER PRAY TO SON OR DAUGTER ALLHA WIL ACCEPT THE DUA VERY SOON....
MOTHER IS EVERTHING...
A man asked Prophet Muhammad pbuh who is more entitled to be treated with best companionship by Me?
The Prophet pbuh said \Your MOTHER\"
The man asked again who next?
The prophet pbuh said \"Your MOTHER\"
Then he asked again who next?
The Propeht pbuh said \"Your MOTHER\"
The man asked for the Fourth time \"Who is next?\"
The Prophet pbuh said \"Your Father\"
If the mothers did not read about prophet muhammad pbuh - They are missing a lot in this life."
Add new comment