Doctor Narrates Story Of Being Quarantined Because A Patient Lied About His COVID-19 History

With the COVID-19 outbreak in the country showing no signs of improvement anytime soon, the service of hospitals, doctors, paramedics, and other healthcare workers is of utmost importance. But unfortunately every passing day a many of these frontline workers are getting infected themselves, mostly due to their exposure to COVID-19 patients.

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This also means that other than the healthcare workers who have tested positive, their colleagues who had come into contact with them are also forced to self-isolate, leaving more strain on the already stretched healthcare system. Most of the healthcare workers got infected while attending to COVID-19 patients in hospitals there are others who contracted the virus from asymptomatic carriers.

There are also incidents were COVID-19 patients hid their medical history and endangered the lives of many others. Dr. Vigneswaran Shanmugam, an anesthetist from Tamil Nadu has shared his story, on how he was exposed to COVID-19 because a patient lied about his medical history.

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"As per rules, I only attend to emergencies mostly LSCS.. I make sure that there is no history of any travel, no symptoms n signs of infection and no positive history in patient's family or neighbors... N also COVID investigations," he wrote in a Facebook post.

He further said that one day he got a call from an orthopedic surgeon about a patient with a history of RTA sustained polytrauma which means multiple fractures.

"We collected history in which he denied travelling to containment zone(1), no symptoms, not tested(2). Then we had him investigated (govt approved private lab) for Corona which showed negative. We go ahead with surgery as planned. Even on pre anesthetic check up same details were asked and he was all good. Even on OT table, he was enquired about accidents which he manipulated. To avoid general anesthesia, I gave him Ultrasound guided regional block on Friday. Rest all were fine and he was shifted to post op," Dr Shanmugam wrote.

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But later they received a call from the government health officials saying the patient was investigated on 18th for COVID and was found to be positive.

Later it became clear that the patient came back from Chennai three days prior to the accident in a two-wheeler and the village panchayat head compelled him to undergo a COVID test. He met with the accident while returning after getting tested.

"All these things were purposefully hidden from us even after repetitive questioning by three consultants, nurses and other health workers," Dr. Shanmugam stated.

As a result of this exposure, Dr. Shanmugam said the hospital is completely shut down and around 20 people including him, two surgeons along with nurses and health care workers are in home quarantine along with their family members quarantined. He also said that the incident had triggered rumors that doctors are COVID positive, the patient died, etc.

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He ended the post listing the lessons he learned from this.

1. There is nothing called trusting patients when they don't trust you and purposefully hide information.

2. Treat everyone as a COVID suspect

3. Don't forget you take your family with you for this war to help untrustworthy patients.

4. To the public, stop spreading nonsense baseless news in social media.

5. To my colleagues who try to save patient's money by avoiding PPE n COVID testing, it's not worth it doctors.

6. To my non medico friends, if u are one among to hide info, spread false news or being a untrustworthy patient anywhere or to any doctors never ever call me for advice.

Doctors are no more Gods, We are here to treat you but not at the cost of my life and lives of my family members.