PANAJI
The ongoing pandemic has underlined the importance of doctors who have been offering their 100 per cent for the past more than a year-and-a-half to save the suffering and confused mankind. As the country celebrated National Doctors’ Day on July 1, some of these frontline warriors have expressed how they feel about the current crises and what they expect from the future.
Consulting oncologist from Goa, Dr Shekhar Salkar points out that the doctors and for that matter, all health care workers, have given their 100 % in this pandemic in spite of heavy criticism on deaths caused due to Covid! Extending his words of appreciation towards all the doctors and staff of GMC, health department and all private doctors who treated covid patients knowing that it could be dangerous to their own health and so also their children and family, Dr Shekhar Salkar admits, “It was a testing time for all the health care workers,” and adds, “We should not forget nurses and all medical staff who worked tirelessly to save patients.”
It’s a once in a lifetime happening for healthcare workers to witness such a pandemic, says Dr Salkar, offering condolences to the families of doctors who lost their lives to this deadly disease.
For epidemiologist and geriatrician Dr Amit Dias, the medical profession is a vocation. “On one hand it involves a lot of hard work and sacrifices and on the other hand it gives us the joy that no other profession can give. The cry of the new born child, the smile on our patients faces, the regular heartbeat, the signs of improvement in our patients... This is something no other profession can match. Medicines can change the course of the disease, while the doctor heals the person,” says Dr Dias, an associate professor of Preventive and Social Medicine at GMC.
Expressing that the medical fraternity is a stressed lot, with additional burden of covid patients besides their own routine cases to deal with, paediatric superspecialist Dr Sanjay Khope, states, “For a paediatric surgeon the times are different. We have operated emergency neonatal surgeries in Covid positive mothers who delivered babies with surgical problems. For a surgeon, life-saving is the most important motto even in this pandemic. Many of our colleagues have lost their lives performing their duties.”
On Doctors’ Day let us thank all the angels in white coats who have been working tirelessly without a break to protect each and every one of you from this Covid-19 pandemic. Let us also jointly condemn the incidents of violence against doctors which are rising in our country. Wishing all the doctors a very Happy Doctors Day 2021!
