KUALA LUMPUR: Hours after his first day of being deployed to manage the front lines for the Covid-19 pandemic in Johor, a medical officer has taken to social media to pen his experience.
On his Facebook, Sean Thum, also known as Dr Sean, said he received a call in the afternoon of March 13 (Friday), requesting his service.
He said, although he had a couple of hours before reporting at 5pm, he was ever ready for it.
“When I was informed my name has been put into the pool of medical officers deployed to manage the front lines for the Covid-19 pandemic in Johor, I probably felt the same as Yue Fei (Chinese military general during Song dynasty) when he received an Imperial Order by the Emperor to carry out a mission.
“I felt I was ready to serve my country #DemiMalaysia,” he wrote.
He said, upon his arrival at the Permai Hospital, together with his friends; Brigette and Edward, they underwent a quick orientation session and had a simple dinner before they started work.
“The three of us were in charge of screening patients, which include obtaining history, performing a thorough physical examination of the patient, checking vital signs, taking throat swabs, nose swabs, and a blood sample, and also making a decision on whether the patient required admission (this was after consultation with the infectious diseases specialist on duty).
“We also had to register the patients' names into the disease notification system so that we, and our colleagues doing contact tracing, would be able to locate said patients,” he shared.
He said these procedures were able to be completed rather quickly.
“The element complicating this collection of data was the strict environmental conditions involved as all staff had to put on (don) personal protective equipment before contact with the patients.
“It was a tedious process that had strict rules that we had to observe. These rules are made so that our healthcare professionals don't get infected (so we adhered to it religiously).
“There were layers after layers of...stuff to put on, and it had to be donned in the right sequence. You eventually end up in a spacesuit-like situation.
“It was warm and stuffy,” he wrote.
Dr Sean said when donning the personal protective equipment correctly, one could not feel the movement of air around him/her.
“The suit is tight on you, limiting your movement. The N95 mask fits tightly to your jaw, trapping your heat and moisture in that region. Breathing could get a little difficult, especially because you are breathing in your own exhale.”
He said two hours later, he was drenched in his own sweat.
“It was as if I had a personal sauna session while I carried out my duty. Bear in mind I was working at 8pm.
“Imagine what my colleagues who worked in the afternoon had to go through,” he said.
Dr Sean said after they were "free" from their confinements, they went to the pantry and downed cups after cups of water.
“We were dehydrated after the session of ‘sauna’ and the chlorhexidine bath was refreshing, and could not be more welcomed.
“(But) this pandemic isn't going away so soon,” he said.
In his post, Dr Sean also thanked his colleagues who have been part of the efforts since day one of the country’s responses to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“It is not easy, and I hope to contribute whatever I can as part of the frontliners for the remainder of my shift at this hospital.
“This pandemic will pass, eventually. But before that, we all have to work together to overcome the challenges it throws at us.
“Remember, the virus does not discriminate on who it infects. Let's work hand in hand, together,” he wrote.
Yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba announced that 1,000 housemen will be deployed to hospitals nationwide to ease the burden of doctors who are busy dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.
He said the housemen will be tasked to treat normal cases since a lot of the doctors at the hospitals are dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.