The Quarantine

As a former patient, the most painful phase during the recovery trajectory was when I was isolated in the hospital bed as a precaution to prevent the spread of a skin infection. The thoughts of people looking upon you with suspicion is the most painful part of the recovery trajectory.

The hospital knows it and they are well equipped - gloves, full aprons, masks and separate medical instruments are needed to treat you. The fear of the unknown and the invisible virus or bacteria can cause so much panic that nurses and doctors need to maintain a safe distance. The vistors are also warned to keep a distance. Handshakes are not allowed as skin contact is prohibited.

On a visit to my ailing grandfather who was bedridden and sick, I contracted a bacterial infection since I applied an ointment on his body with my bare hands. The bacterial infection is contagious only when prolonged skin contact with the infected person and because of my carelessness of not using a glove I got the same infection which he had, scabies.  Since then I had travelled from India to Netherlands.

Post the accident, I had spent about 20 days in the hospital with treatments ranging from emergency operations, to being in coma, and then being shifted to the ICU and finally moving to a normal room shared by three other fine gentlemen. I noticed that after the pain of the accident subsided the torment of the itching due to the skin infection began to rise. Since the itching wasn’t at all in a critical path to my life, it was not given much attention even though I had mentioned it earlier to the doctors.

After spending about 20 days in the hospital and bidding a grateful goodbye, I was shifted to the revalidation centre called De Hoogstraat, a brilliant centre with doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other volunteers who help people get on their feet. The inmates are people who have had severe accidents, paralysed, handicapped or amputated due to various ailments. The patients are taught to walk using a wheelchair, crutches, an electric cycle or a four wheeled vehicle. The patients with less injuries can visit the centre for a couple of hours in a day or a week, however patients with serious limitations are given a bed with a daily schedule of rehabilitation exercises.

Once here, I again brought to the attention of the doctors about my intense itching in my body, after which it was found to be a contagious skin infection.  Immediately I was put in isolation and there was a callout to the hospital, medical staff, the nurses and whomsoever was in contact with me, were asked to take preventive pills and be on alert for any kind of skin rashes. The local health department was also informed and all my contacts were interviewed to check if they also had symptoms.

Wow, what an embarrassing moment it was, but I co-operated fully knowing that the last thing that I wanted to happen was for  another person to get the same infection. During isolation, I was sharing the room with other gentlemen who were amputees and they were very kind. The bedsheets, towels and clothes need to go to a separate washing space and separate toilet, facial masks, gloves and aprons were used to attend me - it made me a bit sad during the time I was under isolation. However every inch of me wanted to make sure that no one else gets infected especially the noble hospital and rehabilitation centre staff who are out there to help you. I felt a bit guilty since it was contagious but thankfully it hadn't transferred to anyone. 

It was after a week that I was free from the skin infection and I was back into a non-quarantine mode. It was so good to roam about freely in a wheelchair and be treated normally like the other patients and what a victory it was to be identified as one among them - however my victory over isolation appeared to be short-lived. Soon I developed fever for an unknown reason after which the doctors in De Hoogstraat decided that I had to be transferred back to the hospital.

Once back to the hospital where I was operated earlier, it was such a joy to see the medical staff in the hospital who had earlier waved me goodbye but this time it was different. I was invited on one condition that I had to be isolated again because of my earlier skin infection. I informed the staff patiently that I was already isolated for a while and have been free for more than a week but that was not heard since the hospital rules were different. I was isolated again and the same process of being treated separately continued. I felt like throwing my arms up and quitting. For the very first time, I cried and complained - the accident was not my fault, the skin infection was because I helped someone and I have already been isolated, this isn’t fair.  There was help offered to me by talking to a counsellor or a psychologist but I politely refused and waited patiently for the double isolation term to get over

The medical treatment I received in the hospital was the best in the world, and I am so thankful that close to 10 years after this incident I can write about it, but isolation is painful.

It breaks me when I think of migrants who are stuck up in a different place than theirs and are stuck without transportation and are in a panic to go home. The several innocents who have contracted the disease and couldn't make it live. O how I feared when a dear migrant who has a bad cold dropped  in home.  The corona crisis is extremely contagious compared to the skin infection which I had which is never fatal however there is another social isolation that I have experienced in work, church and family circles which never should be encouraged - the forming of teams to isolate and hurt people. The powerful and the influential many times exercise authority over the weak and voiceless. For more than three decades, I had always related the weak and the voiceless to be the poor but sadly its not always the case. There can be pride in any person making them rule over the voiceless under them.

The  meditation this morning on Matthew 14 beginning from verse 35 and 36 brings me in awe of how the people brought the sick to Jesus Christ and let them touch the edge of His garment for sickness, isolation, fear and sin stopped there. Wow, O may I go more to you during these times