Post-COVID care facility to aid recovery

Patients can now recuperate at the rehab centre near Shivarampally

The road to recovery is proving to be a long one for COVID-19 patients. As doctors try to understand the long term debilitating after-effects of viral attack, a facility to take care of such patients has opened in the city.

“Patients testing negative after a bout of infection are having breathing issues which need continuous monitoring. Hospital care is too expensive and unnecessary for such patients. After interacting with people who have tested negative but are having various other complaints, I thought of setting up this unit,” says Mujtaba Askari, who has started the post COVID-19 rehab centre on non-profit basis near Shivarampally.

Recently, Home Minister Amit Shah was rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and was discharged from the same hospital after testing negative. Breathing problem, weakness, fatigue and general listlessness are some of the symptoms being noticed. “We are monitoring people every two or four hours for oxygen saturation level, spirometry and other vital parameters besides physical examination. Many patients are being treated with steroids and their sugar levels are being monitored,” says Sadaf, a duty doctor at the facility. “It is like home care with the benefit of doctors and nurses in attendance. We can take immediate action,” adds Dr. Sadaf.

Free care

Nutritious diet, physiotherapy and counselling are part of the package. “We have come across certain cases where older people have been abandoned by their children after testing positive for COVID-19. We are offering free care to such people so that their families can accept them back after a few days,” informs Mr. Askari of Helping Hand Foundation, a local NGO.

One major advantage over hospitals is that the patients at the facility have the freedom to decide when they want to go back home.