KOLKATA: A doctor who got Covid during pregnancy, fleetingly saw her baby boy who had to be shifted to NICU immediately after the delivery.
Three days later, she herself was put on ventilator.
Winning her battle against the virus, she couldn’t stop crying as she held her newborn for the first time on Friday.
The heart-warming video has now gone viral.
While she was being treated at the intensive care unit (ICU) of ILS Hospital in Howrah, doctors attending to 25-year-old Arfa Sajadin would show her the baby via video call.
She gradually started responding to treatment and finally, on Friday, the mother-son duo was reunited.
The team of doctors is especially thrilled because Sajadin’s chances of survival were rather thin.
She was one of those doctors who wasn’t inoculated because of conception.
A total of 646 doctors have died due to Covid-19 in the ongoing second wave in the country, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said on Saturday.
“The sight of the baby served almost as a vaccine in her case and this young medic realized that being a mother was the biggest reason to live,” said consultant paediatrician and neonatologist Abhishek Tiwari.
The doctor was 37 weeks pregnant when she was infected.
She was diagnosed with having very poor glycemic control and the ultrasonography revealed a baby large for its gestational age.
There were clear signs of foetal distress as well.
Considering her symptoms and clinical status, Sajadin underwent Caesarean section and delivered a 3.9kg baby.
He didn’t cry after birth and the neonatal team initiated positive pressure ventilation (PPV) before shifting the boy to NICU where he was provided intensive care.
“Fortunately, his Covid-19 report came negative,” said Tiwari.
Meanwhile, three days after her delivery, Sajadin’s battle between life and death began.
“She started experiencing respiratory distress with acute decline in sensorium and was promptly shifted to the Covid ICU,” said a doctor.
She had developed disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), a condition in which small blood clots develop throughout the bloodstream, blocking small blood vessels.
Sajadin had to be intubated, underwent exploratory laparotomy and the blood clots were removed.
“Everyone lost hope except our critical-care team.
She stayed on mechanical ventilator for 10 days.
I would hear my colleague, Kaushik Naha Biswas, talking to her, saying, ‘Arfa you are a fighter, please don’t give up.
Your baby is waiting for you.’ Finally, she came around,” Tiwari said.