Volume 11 Issues 11 November, 2021
Empathy: tough to hold in difficult times
It’s really a privilege by virtue of being a psychiatrist to interact with so many people and attend to their different sides of life. It’s a privilege to work with so many people like psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and various therapists. Along with being a mental health professional, being the principal of a medical college, I was lucky enough to interact with specialists of other medical branches like medicine, surgery, orthopaedics etc. In my long career of being a mental health professional, I always give top priority to show courtesy, respect, and empathy to the patients and their family members. One thing that helps me most to understand my patients better is “empathy”.
I remember being appointed as principal of LLRM medical college, Meerut. It was the time when the second wave of covid-19 hit India, and everything was so chaotic, medical infrastructure was struggling initially due to outnumbered patients. Everyone was living with the fear of getting an infection someday or other. Still, we were fighting against covid-19 with all the support provided by the government.
During my routine hospital rounds, I saw a lady right in Infront of the COVID dedicated ward for 3-4 days in a row. I saw her with teary eyes each day, so one day, I stopped by and came to know that she was newly married, and her husband was admitted to the ICU ward due to a COVID-19 infection. She was requesting the staff to meet her husband once, which the staff was not allowing due to protocol. She was all distressed and hadn’t eaten for days. I arranged for her a PPE suit and, with all precautions, gave her permission to meet her husband briefly. Sadly, in the same evening, her husband succumbed to covid.
This incident left me with so many thoughts. What if I didn’t empathise with that lady and allowed her to meet her husband one last time? Doesn’t it would have put her in a lifetime of agony and misery.
