Lifestyle / COVID-19: These South Asian Healthcare Workers Are Making A Difference On The Frontlines

COVID-19: These South Asian Healthcare Workers Are Making A Difference On The Frontlines

Lifestyle Apr 17, 2020

by Nidhi Shrivastava

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to paralyze the world as countries all around the world implement lockdown and stay-at-home policies. The health care workers, nurses, and doctors have been the heroes at the forefront in the war against the spread of COVID-19. Check out just some (of so many) South Asian healthcare workers making a difference on the frontlines.

During this time, numerous South Asian doctors, healthcare workers, and nurses have also become prominent figures in social media and news channels where they have been playing a fundamental role in educating the public, answering questions, and speaking about health care policies. Please note, although we are highlighting the South Asian community which is contributing to this ongoing crisis, we are thankful for all healthcare workers, medical doctors, nurses, and staff who are working tirelessly all around the world regardless of their race, ethnicity, class, caste, and religion fighting to the save the lives of millions who are affected worldwide. We thought it was time to highlight some of them here:

Dr. Manoj K. Dalmia, M.D

Dr. Manoj K. Dalmia has a specialty in anesthesiology and paediatric anesthesiology has been an essential and comforting voice during the chaos of the coronavirus epidemic. On March 16th, Dalmia created an account dedicated to dismantling the fake accounts in the social media about the epidemic. He is also based in New York, which is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. At a time when news accounts are often giving sensationalized accounts of the events that are taking place at this time. His Facebook posts that are like journal entries paint a realistic picture of what is taking place in New York. You can check out his Facebook account here.

These South Asian Healthcare Workers Are Making A Difference On The Frontlines: Dr. Manoj K. Dalmia attending the COVID-9 unit in New York City, which is the American epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo Credit: www.facebook.com/manoj.dalmia

Dr. Amita Kundra, M.D.

Dr. Amrita Kundra is a board-certified anesthesiologist from Buffalo New York who has been active on Instagram. Her posts are inspirational and informal at the same time. Her posts speak about hardline issues that are being currently debated in news channels, including coronavirus testing and the splitting of ventilators.

Dr. Elizabeth Shanika Esparaz M.D.

Dr. Shanika from North Eastern Ohio is a board-certified ophthalmologist who specializes in cataract surgery and medical retina specialist. Her latest post has been reassuring for her patients that their eye trauma-related medical issues that will still be attended to in spite of the chaos stemming from the pandemic.

Dr. Prakash Gatta, M.D.

Dr. Prakash Gatta from Tacoma California was recently interviewed on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. In the interview, he shares that he not only was infected but also survived the COVID-19.

“This is the reason I felt that it was an important message because there is no good way to describe the anxiety that a healthcare worker such as me, or the nurses, the environmental service worker that comes to work, the unsung heroes of this hospital, and of medicine in general, “he remarked. “There is no way to describe the fear and the anxiety you would have of coming to work knowing that there is a disease out there – that is an invisible disease – that can actually take your life. I have never served in the military. The closest I would ever come to serving in uniform for this country [America] is to do the job I am doing today.”

Vani Sudheesh, RN

Vani Sudheesh, a registered nurse who works at a hospital in Miami, Florida shared her experiences as the last person present with a 76 year-old man suffering from COVID-19. In an interview with New India Times, Sudheesh shared that he held her hand and told her that “the whole world is talking about me, but it’s about you. You are the angels in this world. You have to take care of yourselves.” The patient has since been intubated.

Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi, M.D.

Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi, who leads the urgent care at the Queen Hospital in London U.K., popularized breathing techniques that became viral leading to even getting support from, J.K. Rowling. He decided to come up with these techniques after realizing that his mother was having trouble breathing. In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Show, Munshi remarked, “‘I’m not someone who is on social media so it really wasn’t for the mass public but essentially my mother and father had COVID for the preceding ten days and dad recovered quite well but unfortunately mum started deteriorating.”

https://youtu.be/EQlFeBLrbS0

Dr. Rishi Desai, M.D, M.P.H

Dr. Rishi Desai, a paediatric infectious disease physician from Oakland, California who also holds a public health background, is currently working as the Chief Medical Officer at Osmosis as well as leading the Khan Academy Medicine. Recently, Desai was in the news for exposing the current administration in the United State’s failure to lead the coronavirus fight in the country. In the interview, according to Daily Kos, Desai reinforced the stay-at-home message and underscored the importance of mass testing that needed to be done as soon as possible. Clips of the interview further show Desai pointing out that the information of the virus from China was available earlier on. More importantly, he said, “Last year we knew about this. We knew coronavirus was coming. We knew it was a respiratory disease. We knew it was person-to-person. Why is it this week that the FDA finally approved these kinds of new Abbott Lab testing.”

**These South Asian Healthcare Workers Are Making A Difference On The Frontlines: Fox News Host Stunned As Dr. Desai highlights US government’s failure for handling the coronavirus epidemic.** Photo Credit: www.daily kos.com

These are just some of the people we have highlighted in this moment of crisis. Once again, we thank all of the healthcare workers that are the real soldiers in this war against the coronavirus. We cannot thank them enough for what they for us and our loved ones.

Main Image Photo Credit: www.contagionlive.com

Nidhi Shrivastava

Author

Nidhi Shrivastava (@shnidhi) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department at Western University and works as an adjunct professor in at Sacred Heart University. She holds double masters in South Asian Studies and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on Hindi film cinema, censorship, the figure o...

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COVID-19: These South Asian Healthcare Workers Are Making A Difference On The Frontlines

by Nidhi Shrivastava

Nidhi Shrivastava

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