[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] Year 2020,
a pandemic began.
A pandemic that caused the global crisis.
A pandemic that changed lives
and took away many with it, forever.
A pandemic that showed us the real heroes, the warriors...
the front line workers.
A pandemic that separated them from their families.
A pandemic that separated them from their motherland.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[phone ringing]
-Hello. -[Dr. Pooja] Hello, papa.
Papa, I meant to tell you,
but I had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
What? [crying]
[Dr. Ankit] I can't wait for this crisis to get over.
I'm definitely taking the first flight back
and when it's safe and,
and I really want to go back to India
and visit my family and my other relatives back there.
Two hours everyday, I'm doing puja for that.
And I'm so worried and really apprehensive
about how they are dealing with these COVID patients.
So it's always at the back of my mind.
It's been very difficult and I'm so scared that
he is older and he's at a high risk.
So that is my greatest fear.
On a personal front, I have stayed away from family for a long time.
I'm sure as a mother, if it is up to her,
she would not let me go anywhere,
because I have a high risk of contracting this disease.
[brooding music]
[Carnatic flute music]
[Dr. Ankit] So I was born in a small town called Meerut in North India.
And I lived there with my parents until the tenth grade.
Delhi Public School, I was going to the boarding school,
was a very interesting experience.
I was by myself for the first time.
I learnt a lot in those two years.
So I decided to pursue my medical training.
So I had applied to Christian Medical College in Vellore,
and I was so surprised when I got in.
It was a unique experience and something that I cherish a lot.
From Vellore then I finished my medical school
and then I came to US for my surgical training.
I did both my general surgery residency and then my fellowship in St. Louis.
And then once I finished my training, I came to Chicago
as a thoracic surgeon.
And then I was able to start the lung transplant program here,
and then start some research program
related to patients who have lung diseases and lung failure.
And then ultimately, I was appointed as the head of thoracic surgery here
and I serve in that capacity.
Growing up in a family of physicians had a big influence
in my ultimate decision to pursue the medical career.
Also influenced by some events that happened in our family,
in particular one event that led to the loss of my younger brother,
which also had a heavy influence in my ultimate decision to pursue medicine.
And I saw that while the,
the physicians there could not save my brother,
they were able to give us some time and hope
just to come to terms with the fact that,
you know, he was not going to make it.
[Carnatic music]
[Dr. Pooja] I'm a practicing nephrologist,
in New Jersey for the last ten years.
I was born and brought up in India.
I came to US in 2002.
Then I did my residency in New York,
and then fellowship as well.
And subsequently I came to New Jersey
and since then here I am.
[Carnatic music]
So it was early on, during the pandemic,
we were just starting to see the cases.
And being a nephrologist,
I do take care of dialysis patients
and some of the patients were coming in
with atypical symptoms.
And although we were taking the standard precautions,
but we were not ready fully,
for seeing the surge for COVID-19.
And I believe during one of those encounters,
I did get the disease.
[Carnatic music]
[Dr. Shreedhar] I grew up in a small city
called Karaikudi in southern India.
I did finish my higher education,
my medical schooling in Hubli and Dharwad.
And then I moved to the United States.
I did work in research for a couple of years at Harvard.
And then I moved to here, Louisiana a couple of years ago.
A lot of things have changed for us,
since COVID-19 has started.
And the changes start right here
at the main entrance of the hospital.
We used to have multiple entrances to enter this building.
But right now, there is only one main entrance
through which all the employees can go in.
Well, they'll make sure that we are wearing a mask,
and if we don't have a mask, they'll give us a mask.
They'll make sure that we wash our hands with a hand sanitizer.
They'll check our temperature, and they'll ask if you have any symptoms
suggestive of COVID-19, like, you know, fever, cough, shortness of breath.
And if we don't have any symptoms,
and if our temperature is in the normal range,
then only we are allowed to go inside for the work.
So we are in one of the dedicated COVID units of the hospital.
So we have several units like this in the hospital, where we have...
places where we can take care of COVID-19 patients.
We have places in the ICU, and also in the medical floor.
And this is one of the medical floors of the hospital area.
And we have this tool kit,
which has all the PPEs for the healthcare worker.
[Carnatic flute music]
[Dr. Uma] I'm born and brought up in India Mysore.
I graduated in JSS Medical College.
I think when I was like four or five years old,
my dad and mom said that,
"Okay, you know, you're going to become a doctor."
But, you know, that is what I like--
that was a dream which I started, like,
dreaming from a very young age, I loved it.
I think I'm so glad they told me that I have to become a doctor.
I just can't even explain how much I love my job.
Every day morning, you know,
even though it's very tiring,
I just feel that I feel so immense happiness
to go to the hospital, treat the patients
and, you know, it is such a rewarding thing
when they, you know, wish you, bless you.
I mean, I just love it.
[Carnatic music]
[Dr. Shantanu] I was born and brought up in northern India, Dehra Dun.
And I was really fortunate to have gone to
a prestigious residential school,
the Doon School.
And this had a profound impact on my character,
and I try to live up to its high standards by being upright and sincere in what I do.
After I graduated from school, and medical school,
I came to the US.
I spent some time at Johns Hopkins.
I did my specialty in internal medicine.
And then I subspecialized in sleep medicine.
And currently I'm subspecializing
in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine.
But my greatest inspiration is my grandfather, Manana Ji.
I have grown up...
seeing him treat patients.
He used to get patients, his regular patients,
would travel about seven or eight hours to see him.
And his service was so selfless.
He would not charge anyone who was not able to pay...
or just minimally charge them.
And he continues to do the same today.
[brooding music]
[Dr. Ankit] So COVID is a new virus
for all of us, for the entire mankind.
We are learning every day new things about this virus.
What we know so far, is that this virus can affect any part of the body
although it starts from the lungs in most of the patients.
It seems to be highly transmissible.
In fact, there have been many outbreaks from coronavirus,
but what is different from coronavirus and COVID-19 is,
COVID-19 is a particular strain,
what we call in medical terms or it's a type of coronavirus.
The reason it's called COVID-19 is,
"CO" is for corona, "VI" is for virus,
"D" is for disease, and "19" is
because it started in 2019 in Wuhan, China.
So initially, I think it was the end of December,
January when we started, like, you know,
getting to know about this and the WHO being,
you know, giving out the information.
I have never seen in my lifespan
or I've just heard about the pandemic.
So I was thinking, "Oh, wow,
we may be prepared for this and we'll be okay."
But it's really there,
it's not that simple what I thought when it started.
[Dr. Shantanu] So basically it spreads when you're close proximity
of a person who has the COVID-19,
and they are coughing or sneezing,
and that's how it spreads.
So now the COVID-19 virus
goes in through the nose or the mouth, into the airway,
and then it eventually travels down from the windpipe down
to the smaller airways, until it reaches something known as the alveoli.
Alveoli is where gas exchange takes place.
And that is the area where
virus causes a lot of inflammation as well.
And if inflammation is bad enough,
it can cause something known as, acute respiratory distress syndrome.
[Dr. Shreedhar] One other important thing is,
we don't realize that we touch our face and eyes and all that,
a lot of times.
Think like this, if I have COVID-19,
and I touch my face or eyes or nose,
and if I touch something else, you know,
so it's very likely or potential that the virus is on that surface.
And if somebody else who doesn't have the virus,
touches that surface within certain time, they can get it.
People who are elderly, uh...
are at a higher risk of getting COVID-19.
People who are immunosuppressed is what we call,
who have decreased ability to fight infections
such as people with cancer, people who are taking
chronic immunosuppressive therapy what we call.
They are diseases in which we need to suppress their immunity,
to make them feel better.
So those are the patients, who are likely to get this COVID-19.
And last but not the least,
the people who are in the frontline in fighting this,
like, for example, healthcare workers, you know, uh...
doctors, nurses,
and all the auxiliary staff in the healthcare field.
And also people who are working in the,
for example, groceries or pharmacies, uh,
or people who are in the delivery services, mailmen.
So, all the essential workers, who are meeting people,
or who have to because of the nature of their job,
are at a higher risk of contracting with the COVID-19.
[Dr. Ankit] It's possible to contain the transmission
by taking some simple precautions,
practicing hand hygiene, wearing masks in crowded areas and so forth.
In addition to having the PPE, a big part of the planning,
was related to educating the healthcare workers
to use that PPE appropriately.
So we created a lot of training videos
and educational sessions to make sure that these health care workers
are actually using these masks and the gowns appropriately.
So there's no point in just having that
and people not using it carefully and appropriately
and then getting the virus
and then transmitting it to the other patients.
[brooding music]
You know, the most disappointing things about this virus
is related to the uncertainty
of how this is affecting the body.
Despite months of casualty,
we still are quite ignorant about how it kills people
and how we can best treat these patients.
[Dr. Shantanu] So when the patient comes to us, in the hospital,
and if they are not doing too well,
they're requiring, they're having a hard time breathing,
then we help them with supplemental oxygen.
So initially, we start with something known as nasal cannula.
So this is a nasal cannula.
And we place this around their nose,
and so this supplies a little bit of oxygen to them.
So this can supply about three to four to five liters of oxygen.
But when their oxygen requirements start to go up,
then we have to switch them over to something else,
which can provide like higher amount of oxygen.
Which is a non-invasive...
positive pressure ventilation.
So we use a mask, which is,
this is a PAP mask,
which can be used with a CPAP or a BiPAP.
And we have the patients wear over,
and there's a tubing that connects to this port here
and connects to a ventilator.
But that is a non-invasive ventilation.
As their oxygen requirements start to go even higher and higher,
they start to become sicker and sicker.
In that case, we have to place them on a ventilator.
And in that case, we have to place this tube
down through their mouth into their main airway.
So this rests in the windpipe, which is the trachea,
and this end of it is connected to the ventilator.
And so the ventilator actually helps in supporting the patient.
So the ventilator takes over the function of breathing for a patient.
We give patient medicines so that they can rest,
and the ventilator can breathe for them.
So, you know we've taken a number of steps
to prepare us to better take care of these patients.
The first, uh, major step was to make sure that these patients
who are going to be coming to our hospital,
are separated from the rest of the patients
because we did not want the hospital to become a hotspot.
And so these patients were cohosted in specific regions of the hospital
that had all the latest equipment
and all the necessary safeguards to prevent the virus
from reaching other parts of the hospital.
[Dr. Shantanu] So this is a CT scan of a patient
who has COVID-19 infection.
[respiratory sounds]
This is the right lung.
And this is the left lung.
[respiratory sounds]
The bright white that you see are the bones,
whereas this white is either the fat or muscle.
And as I go in, ideally I should be seeing all black here,
in the lung because lung has air...
but as I go in these white patches that we see are diseased.
So this patient has significant amount of COVID-19 disease burden.
This is the top. So his head is here.
And this is the bottom.
So as I go in, that's the vertebra, the backbone.
As I just go in, there's so much of disease burden,
this patient has...
because of COVID-19 infection.
This patient is on the ventilator, that is the endotracheal tube.
[Dr. Ankit] Well, my mom and my dad, we talk
almost on a daily basis, sometimes we'll FaceTime.
And my mom, especially, you know,
will text me several times during the day
and we talk on a number of issues.
[Carnatic music]
[flute music]
I'm so worried and really apprehensive
about how they are dealing with these COVID patients.
So it's always at the back of my mind.
So whenever-- and besides that also, whenever I get time
I have my mala, in all the bedrooms these days.
Whenever I sit quietly, I always start doing this Mahamrityunjaya,
which is supposed to be like a cover,
and I mean, it is supposed to be a good mantra
for protecting your children or whoever you're doing it for.
-[Carnatic music] -[bell ringing]
[Dr. Bharat] But at the same time, we are human beings,
we have a lot of sentiments.
And especially a child like Ankit.
Everyone is so closely knit and attached,
we are scared and pray all the time for his safety,
to be his well being.
And we are sure he must be taking full precautions
to save himself and his patients all the time.
[Dr. Pooja] The day I started to feel symptoms,
I was at work and I started to feel fatigued,
then some muscle pain.
Initially I thought it's just lack of sleep,
and I just went on with my day,
but then later on during the day I started to have chills and fever.
And then I knew it, that most likely I have gotten the disease.
[Carnatic music]
[people murmuring]
So my dad was very emotional when he heard about it.
[sobbing painfully]
He was very proud that
I was able to hide it from them.
[Carnatic music]
I can tell my mom worries, about me as a son, you know.
I'm sure as a mother,
if it is up to her, she would not let me go anywhere,
because I have a high risk of contracting this disease.
But at the same time...
she is a proud mother of a COVID warrior.
So she would rather have me work here
and make sure people are taken care of and not just putting...
my own self-interest in the forefront.
So it's a very emotional,
and a conflicted situation for both my mom and dad, and I can see it.
[Carnatic music]
[car engine roaring]
[Carnatic music continues]
[Carnatic music]
It's been very difficult, and I'm so scared that,
you know, he is older and he's at a high risk.
So...
that is my greatest fear,
that, you know, like, because mom is no more--
and he's everything for me, he's the only one for me now.
[Carnatic music]
[Hegadadevana] She is scared of me.
Because I am aged, so I don't,
I tell her, don't, not care to me,
care for me, you work hard,
and treat the patients well.
On a personal front, I have stayed away from family for a long time.
Uh, I have not had chances to go for some family occasions,
when I was required to.
I try to speak with my family whenever I can.
I try to talk to them over the phone, or I Skype with them.
I even do some WhatsApp calls,
whenever I have some time off during the weekend.
[Carnatic lute music]
[birds chirping]
[Dr. Tankit] Big problems that we faced initially,
was the concerns of the healthcare workers,
about getting the virus and then possibly transmitting it
to their family members who were staying with them.
But with the right precaution,
with the right personal protective equipment,
you can absolutely contain the spread of this virus.
[Dr. Bharat] He is fighting with the terminally ill patients,
the life threatening diseases of lung and caused by coronavirus.
He may be infected,
but what console me at least is that,
the mortality rate in COVID-19 is three to six percent,
and 95% of the people who have good immunity
and are younger, they don't have a comorbidity factor
are even cured of this disease.
At the same time we being human beings,
we pray all the time for his safety,
and bless him to work and go on good work.
He always say that, "Papa, I derive pleasure
when I treat...
a terminally ill patient and save his life."
This gives me the ultimate pleasure.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Dr. Pooja] Once I was sick, I was hearing some of my colleagues
being sick at the same time, couple of them were in ICU not doing well.
So all those thoughts were coming to my mind,
I thought that I might end up getting intubated,
I might get sicker.
You know, I started thinking about how my family would be without me
and, you know, all sorts of emotions.
Well, you have to keep in mind, it happened
during the early part of the pandemic hitting our state.
And though I thought it was serious,
but I figured that, with all the precautions,
the gloves, the mask, the shield, the gown, she would be okay.
She contracted the virus within a couple of days of taking care of the COVID infected patients.
That was a surprise.
[Dr. Pooja] I had to isolate myself in a room. We have small kids.
Hey, mom, how are you?
-I'm okay, Siyona, how are you? -I miss you.
Miss you too.
I'm getting better, it will be over soon. Don't worry, okay?
So we were worried about them,
and they were not allowed to come inside my room.
You always hear that kids deal with
this kind of situation in a different way,
and my daughters are no different.
So either they were ignoring it at times
or other times they will ask a very pointed question,
"Dad, is mom going to die?" and you're like, "What are you talking about?"
[food simmering]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[cutlery rattling]
[knocking]
Hey, Pooja, are you awake?
Hi, you know, I got your breakfast, an omelet and bread.
So I'm going to put it down, all right?
[cutlery rattling]
[Dr. Pooja] They would leave food outside.
And two, three days later,
we started to get more worried about
presence of kids around me.
So we decided to send them to my sister-in-law's place.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Sameer] For almost three weeks,
Pooja and I, we were locked in our house, nowhere to go.
In our case, our two daughters are still small,
don't think we have been away from them,
at any length of time other than a occasional sleepover.
They were away from us for almost three weeks.
And not to mention that living in the same house,
not being able to be physically close to your spouse
and eating in a different room,
communicating at a distant,
that was, a time I felt, you know, I'm living in a twilight zone.
[Dr. Pooja] Everyone wanted to help in the situation.
My friends and my sister-in-law, they would drop off groceries,
they would prepare food, leave outside my house.
It was really overwhelming
to see how much love I received during that time.
COVID is a very unusual virus
in the sense that it tends to affect a lot of older people.
And, a lot of my patients are older patients who are,
you know, critically ill and they're on the ventilator.
So it always, you know,
raises concerns about the safety of my parents and I,
um, you know, I felt quite-- I feel quite helpless many times
that I'm not there to help support them.
They're elderly, you know, so they're at higher risk.
Uh, so it bothers me a lot.
[Dr. Anusha] I'm a doctor by professional too,
and currently I'm training to be anesthesiologist, here in the United States.
It's only us here, it's just me and my husband,
we do not have any other support.
So, at times it's difficult to kind of find the balance.
But we do try to help each other out with everything.
Personally, it's-- we're worried for each other,
because both of us are healthcare workers,
and both of us are kind of exposed to these patients.
So we're always worried about the other person, you know,
getting infected, or, you know, being at risk.
[Dr. Shreedhar] I think the impact is immense.
And, what touched my heart was when I was talking to my mom,
like a couple of weeks ago,
and these were her exact words,
"You have been there for, like, more than ten years,
and I was never worried for your life, but now I am."
Those were her exact words. And that really, you know, affected me,
they're happy for me, that, you know,
I'm doing well here. But when she said those words,
it really did touch my heart.
[Dr. Uma] I do want to put up a brave face
when I come into the house,
because I know that my husband and my daughters,
they're worried about me.
And so I try to show them that
"No, you know, mom will be safe
and she's coming back home, so it's fine."
[Carnatic lute music]
When she comes back from work, the first thing I ask
is how did the things go and at the same time,
I also don't want to
keep talking about the same thing to her.
So we kind of change the topic, talk something lighter,
you know, friends, and other things.
And just slowly, I kind of try to calm her down
and just take the thoughts out of her,
from all the things happening at the hospital.
[Anusha] It's like scary,
to know that she's like going out and like,
and going to work,
but it's really nice to know that she's making a difference.
And I am usually proud of her for that.
It's just been a lot of, like, more of our mom,
like, coming home stressed and, like, working.
But overall, I feel like we've kind of managed
to just like keep our family together and just like,
you know, keep doing everything we do.
Yeah, it's just-- it takes a little bit of time
to get used to, like, not going close to her.
Like, she doesn't really want us in her room,
for obvious reasons, because she just wants to like come home and shower.
But other than that, it's like pretty normal.
We try to keep it as normal as possible.
So since COVID-19 started, and there was always concern
for lack of protective equipment, and lack of masks,
I decided to make my own personal mask.
So, this is the mask that I made.
This is a full face mask, a CPAP or a BiPAP mask,
that can be used, that I have used.
And this is a filter which connects to a ventilator.
So all what you have to do is, this is an HME filter,
this can be changed every few days
if you are using it regularly.
And here, there're two ports in a mask,
which is also known as intentional leak.
So I have closed these two,
uh, I've sealed these two ports,
all what I have to do is attach the HME to the mask
and instead of N95,
it probably becomes a N99 or a N100 mask,
and then I can just wear it.
So I have gotten this mask fit tested.
And I was told that this fits me just right,
and I can use it. So in case if we were to run out of masks,
I'll probably be using this mask.
[Sameer] Pooja is one of the most giving persons, that I know of.
I mean, she has this inner desire to serve.
As you know she is an a nephrologist,
so she takes care of a lot of chronically ill patients.
And a lot of these patients are from the inner city.
So there are times where they don't have money to pay
for their copay or deductible.
And I don't think over the last ten years,
that she's been practicing,
that she has ever turned anybody away.
And it's kind of funny that there are times,
there's so many occasions where she has given them the money
because they come and tell her that, "Oh," either "I don't have the means
to take the bus or the Uber back," or, you know,
"I have my grandson's birthday is coming
and I don't have the money," and she will give them money instead.
[Dr. Ankit] As far as the emotional stress is concerned is
losing these patients without really knowing how to help them.
You go through the medical school and you're training, learning to be,
you know, quite effective in your field,
and in our field, and in particular, my field,
you know, as a thoracic surgeon, we are
trained to take care of the sickest patients
with lung problems and so forth.
And we take great pride in saving these lives.
And then suddenly you get hit by this virus
that nobody knows anything about.
So that really is very disappointing
and it is a very humbling experience.
Now we get quite sad,
the whole team when they see patients die,
despite their best efforts,
its a very, very sad experience for them.
And I've personally been quite down on many, many occasions
because I have not seen so many people get sick and die
in such a short amount of time.
I feel quite torn in not being able to help them
in these situations, but I'm hoping that they understand
that my obligations towards the patients, is equally important.
And they've been actually very supportive of this and they,
they've always said they're quite proud of the work,
both me and my brother are doing.
And that always helps us continue moving forward
and not get caught up with that conflict.
Because it could be very emotionally distressing,
you know, being caught up with that,
uh, with that conflict.
As healthcare professionals, we are facing...
challenges on several levels, you know.
Physically, we are working very hard,
we are working different.
On emotional level, you know, we are more stressed,
because, you know, we see these people who are relatively healthier
are getting contracted and dying in front of your eyes,
although you're doing everything you can from your side,
but they're still dying and you're not able to save them.
That's a-- it's a very emotional thing that affects you.
Uh, at the same time,
uh, you know, you're worried that, you know,
what if you get affected, you know,
what if you die or what if,
somebody in your family get affected.
So that's-- it's very different, it's very challenging,
in this borrowed time.
[Dr. Uma] 12 hours a day,
you know, you're wearing a mask all the time
and you feel suffocated.
And we don't know what is happening with the patient,
and nor yourself.
And the risk of, like, you know,
you infecting your family is more than yourself.
I have been kind of distancing myself
from my family and everybody and so,
I've started getting these nightmares then I feel, you know,
sometimes that somebody is triangulating me,
in the nighttime and, you know,
one day I call my husband in the middle of the night,
because he sleeps in a different room and I said,
"You know what, I think I'm dead." You know?
It is such an emotional, physical, economical,
I feel it's kind of, like, a severe impact on everybody's life.
I mean, the whole way of thinking,
the life has changed because of this pandemic.
But I think in our lifespan,
this is like one of the greatest challenges,
a lot of people, like, dying, innocent people dying,
lockdowns, emotional stress.
This is one of the major challenges one can face.
It was emotionally draining for us at the time,
because you know, what it really happens,
so we were calling, who's the backup?
Where does kids go? How does this get managed?
All the paperwork, just get all the things together, where things are.
So those kind of planning was all going in the mind
and then we had to execute it within the next week to ten days.
We also had to take a look at our own family situation,
we had not done our wills.
I don't know if something happens to her,
and as quickly we go down,
the kids, I have a minor at home, 21-year-old at home.
So all of those things came to my mind,
both of us, me and my wife.
And we had to rush through, get our wills done,
make sure all the things are written properly,
so that the kids are all taken care of.
Its so unfortunate, some of these COVID-19 patients, they come into the hospital.
They're doing fine one moment and the next time,
like, the next few hours, they just decline rapidly.
So it's very hard. It's hard on them,
it's hard on their families.
During usual times,
patients have their families out there
to support them,
the families are able to spend time with them bedside.
During these COVID-19 pandemic times,
families are not allowed to be in the hospital.
So we have to keep constantly updating them...
and it's just hard for them.
So it just takes a mental and emotional toll on everyone
in the treatment team...
it's hard for families.
It's just difficult.
The loved ones, the people, like,
uh, their loved ones,
a father, mother, you know,
husband, wife and a son, daughter.
It's been very, very emotional for us,
and we being in the front line telling them that,
you know, their loved ones are no more is like,
I, I-- we have done that,
but during this, it's too much. It's too much.
[Dr. Shantanu] I had a patient who did get worse,
and he was initially on the floor, looking quite noxious
and then he was moved to the medical ICU.
And despite all our treatment efforts,
unfortunately, he can't do well and he passed.
Once they come to the hospital and they know that they have COVID-19 infection,
there's a sense of fear which one can feel in them.
There is this kind of fear
in all our hearts
because, you know, it's not easy to ignore it anymore.
[Dr. Shantanu] COVID-19 has led to a lot of patients
who actually need care out of the hospital.
There are patients who have lung masses, lung nodules,
patients with end-stage COPD,
patients with restricted lung diseases,
patients who are on really high amount of oxygen
and on some drugs that only help them breath better,
who need to be followed very closely in the hospital.
So that group of population
has stayed away from the hospital,
and because there is a sense of fear because of COVID-19.
So definitely that group of patients
is currently lacking care, but that is what is going on.
Uh, emotionally, it was draining.
I said, you know, we try to stay positive and support each other.
But in the back of your mind you knew that,
uh, you know, people get in trouble very quickly in this disease.
So it was, doing my best to stay strong,
you know, keep on reassuring her that things will be fine.
Keep on talking to kids and communicating back to her,
that they are doing fine, their schooling is fine.
So trying to keep the life as normal as possible.
[Dr. Pooja] So this was still early on when I had it
and they were really advocating Plaquenil at that time,
it's one of the medication that's used for arthritis.
Now actually, FDA has suggested
that we should only use it in inpatient cases,
but at that time, I decided to take it,
I also took vitamins, took vitamin C,
vitamin D, I took Zinc.
And I did a lot of other things, like steam inhalation,
incentive spirometry, I tried to do some lung exercises,
whatever I can do, and whatever everyone else was telling me to do.
[Carnatic music]
It was quite a relief, coming back to the routine,
although, when I went back it was actually,
uh, the time when the virus was really at surge in the hospital
and I tried to plan my day accordingly.
My time at work has increased so it was very stressful.
She was committed to her work.
[Dr. Ankit] We get trained to be sort of the super-cops in our specialty.
And that's not really a egocentric statement,
but, you know, you go through this training and you work really hard
and you think that you can save a lot of patients
who have life threatening problem and then you get hit by this virus
that you have no clue about.
And you suddenly see so many people who are suffering
and you just don't know what the right path is.
Sometimes I think that if a army officer
is on a peace duty for 20 years,
and suddenly some country invades this country,
and he is ordered to go in front,
he cannot be spared,
seeing the lot of casualties on war front.
[Dr. Ankit] I don't think it's a fair analogy to compare us
with an Air Force pilot or with the army.
But, you know, I just feel like,
when the society gets hit with a crisis,
that you are trained to face,
you have that obligation to be at the forefront.
I wouldn't say it's only the doctors, it is, like,
all the healthcare workers,
you know, like who are in frontline, the nurses, the PCTs,
even the environmental services without which we cannot, you know,
uh, work in the hospital, or how to take care of the patients.
I think all of us are at risk,
and-- but I feel as a physician like, we are prepared for this, you know, like,
I mean, I graduated from India,
and kind of we were prepared to be soldiers,
to work in this kind of pandemic.
And so I feel that we just have to work,
we have to do our duty and help people.
[Dr. Bharat] We doctors are also fighters.
And we also know, as far as our history goes,
that even the Robert Koch who discovered
the mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes tuberculosis,
died of tuberculosis.
[Dr. Ankit] But, you know, we are trained to handle
these kind of problems, and we routinely
deal with patients who have,
you know, highly transmissible diseases.
So, I think it's our obligation, you know,
to be at the forefront
and it's that sense of duty and obligation, that, uh,
you know, keeps us, keeps me going.
Many doctors, they
have done their ultimate sacrifice,
for removing the problems in the disease
in which they were working.
Even a cardiologist of famous cardiologists in India,
died of a heart attack, oncologist dying of
oncology cancer problems.
Uh, even then, we don't stop working, we are fighters.
And we go on doing good work with full faith in God.
[Carnatic music]
[Dr. Ankit] We try and focus on the medical innovation,
and on all the lives we are saving.
Fortunately, we've been able to save majority of the patients.
So ever since we started to see these patients with COVID,
um, I had an idea that we are going to need
to offer lung transplant on somebody.
So going into this procedure, I knew
that this is going to be an important landmark,
for patients with COVID and in medical sciences.
But I did not expect that it's going to reach
six billion people within a week or so.
So this patient was quite young, she was in her 20s.
And one of the first things that the patient said to me was,
"Dr. Bharat, thank you for not giving up on me."
The surgery specifically took about ten hours,
it usually takes me about six hours
to do a double lung transplant.
Then, you know, after the transplant,
she was kept on the ventilator
and on the ECMO support for a period of time.
So after that first patient, we recently
found a second COVID transplant,
and this patient was actually one of the earliest patients
in Chicago to get COVID.
And he was put on the ECMO support
which is the highest level of heart lung support
that any individual can get.
Just like the first transplant,
this transplant also took about ten hours.
And while the patient was a little bit older,
this second patient was off the ventilator just on the ECMO device.
And we are very optimistic that he's going to have full recovery.
It's an important milestone,
because it changes the paradigm of transplant
in the sense that transplants are not offered for infectious diseases.
And I hope that it can save a lot more lives in the future.
And I truly believe that as surgeons,
we don't control anyone's destiny,
and we are here to give hope and time,
and then really constantly push the boundaries to innovate
and help a number of other patients.
So I have registered myself with Red Cross
for plasma donation,
and I have checked I do have antibodies,
so I should be good to donate.
[Satheesh] Just before COVID, right, we had so much plans,
we in fact had a plan to go out on a vacation out of the country.
So a lot of things we had planed on going on,
so everything got stopped.
Everything had to, you know, be thought about.
And it's more of we're like, you know, talking about,
you know, like, let's take one day at a time.
Some days, like ten days at a stretch she works.
Um, and a few days, she takes a break.
And that's when she's cautious.
You know, she-- we are allowed to, you know,
just kind of hold our hands together and then,
just keep sitting next to each other, talk it out.
So that's definitely we do get those few days in between,
every ten or 12 days later.
So that's definitely rewarding. And then, you know,
so these things, we really don't know what tomorrow brings.
[Dr. Ankit] I'm certainly concerned about their health and their safety.
But I can't wait for this crisis to get over,
I'm definitely taking the first flight back
and when it's safe and,
and I really want to go back to India
and visit my family and my other relatives back there.
[Mrs. Bharat] The COVID-19 thing came up,
and the flights were still, you know, going to US, and I asked Ankit,
that maybe we could come over and stay with you.
But then he said you'll be quarantined and all that,
then later on this lockdown occur, and we really couldn't go.
But now as soon as it's going to be possible,
and the international flights are safe.
We have to take precautions in any way,
we'll be going and meeting our children
and Ankit especially, because he is directly involved
with treating so many lung patients that is why we are really worried about him.
[Dr. Ankit] My assistant at work actually put together
a notebook just to keep us encouraged
and keep me encouraged.
And it says, "When things start feeling impossible
just look at all the wonderful things
we have made possible."
And then she put together some of the recent notes
that we have received from patients.
And just to remind us of all the lives we've saved.
These are some of the notes that we get
and that encourages us to keep going
despite the death and suffering that we are seeing.
You know, you can't save everybody but what you can do is, uh...
give it your best shot and leave the rest to destiny.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Dr. Shantanu] The local schoolchildren
actually happened to make us some face shields.
So this is one of the face shield that they made for us.
And I use it pretty often in the clinic.
[Satheesh] They told her this is a surprise.
Don't tell her until, you know, ten, five minutes,
just bring her out, tell her that it's a regular parade,
it's not for her, it's just a regular parade happening.
She was really doing this,
three to four weeks into the COVID situation.
She was really down.
When I say down, she was losing her, you know, confidence,
that we're all going to get over this.
And then once this surprise happened,
you can see the enthusiasm came back to her.
And, you know, it never-- until now after that she's really charged up.
[sirens wailing]
And I think even like, any kind of
this encouragements, even like, we are like,
holding even a small twig,
we get to hold on and, you know,
swim during this time and, you know,
make-- we feel that, you know, people are cheering, they're encouraging us.
Yeah, we need to go and do more of this.
[Dr. Ankit] It certainly, it's a stressful time. And, you know,
I used to be a very active person before all this started.
Currently, the whole country is in a lockdown state,
although some of the states are slowly starting to open up.
That means stay at home except for the essentials.
So all the gyms are closed, all the public areas are closed.
So it's hard to find any outlets right now,
for all the things that are going on.
So I try to indulge in new hobbies
and trying to pursue some of the old hobbies
that I used to have.
So for example, I started to
get back into learning music at home, I have a guitar
and I'm trying to practice, you know, my music.
[gentle guitar music]
[Dr. Shantanu] So before COVID-19 started,
I used to go for a swim every other evening.
But since COVID-19 started, since the lockdown started,
I have not had a chance to go swimming.
So I'm spending more time reading.
[orchestral music]
[birds chirping]
You know, this is a reminder
that there is a strong force above all of us,
that nature has its own way.
And we are so little in front of nature,
we cannot really control much.
Um, just a reminder for all of us, so.
So it's about 10:45, I just got back from work.
Uh, I had a pretty long day today,
but I thought I'll bake some brownies for my team,
because they really are great,
we did two transplants today and,
we did some high risk procedures on some of the COVID patients
so I thought, I'll make something for them.
Uh, I'll make some brownies
and I'll just show my gratitude to my team.
So I haven't really baked in my life.
I tried to make some macaroons before,
and that was a disaster. So I'm hoping this is going to work out.
[piano music]
And then now, this is the mess I've created here.
And that's my recipe right here.
And let's see.
Oh, boy.
It actually turned out pretty good.
[piano music]
I feel that everything has to end one day
and we will be okay,
because we have seen pandemics in the past.
We need to just go through this
and the life will come back to normal.
Probably not immediately but eventually,
and this should become a history that's what I hope for.
[calm soothing music]
[Mrs. Bharat] I want to say you are doing great work,
keep fighting and you are the real warriors right now.
All the health workers, not only doctors,
the health workers, maybe their nurses, their sweepers,
the ward boys, wherever they are,
whoever they are, we shall overcome one day.
-[banging pots] -There'll be peace all around, we'll live a life
which we used to, one day we're going to unmask ourselves.
And I'm sure we will overcome some day.
[gentle piano music]
[Dr, Pooja] As women, we do play multiple roles.
And we are sort of backbones of our families.
So we have to stay strong for them.
But at the same time, I must say that
all of us should take care of ourselves
because if we are not well, we are not healthy,
we are unable to take care of the family.
So we must take out time for ourselves.
Today's Mother's Day, so usually every Mother's Day,
my mom's really fond of like homemade gifts.
So we like to, like, make little posters.
We have so many pictures at home, we have, like, albums and albums in the basement.
So, we just take a bunch of them
and then we usually just put them on posters and, like,
try to paint or something like that.
They just mother me and they say, like,
"Mom, it's okay, you know,
nothing will happen to us,
and nothing will happen to you, just go and work."
[Manisha] My mom has been asking for honey cake for a really long time.
And we keep telling her we're not going to make it,
because we wanted to wait until Mother's Day.
So today we, like, tried to make honey cake,
we have to finish, like, the glazing and stuff,
-but, we-- Anusha baked it last night... -Yeah.
-...when she went to sleep. -This morning.
Oh, yeah, she did it this morning.
And then we just got her, like, some cookie cake and cupcakes
and, like, sweet things.
[girls laughing]
Sure.
Does dad not get a hug? Give me a hug.
[narrator] The darkness of night prevailed.
They lit the candle of hope.
Amid the sorrows, death and the suffering.
They lit the candle of hope for an unseen future
and an unseen enemy.
They lit the candle of hope for lives,
to get back to normal.
They lit the candle of hope.
[soft piano music]
[piano music]
[dramatic orchestral music]