Losing parents to Covid, doctor mulls leaving profession

A disheartened and grieving doctor in Comilla is considering leaving medicine after osing both of his parents to Covid-19.

Dr Zaki Uddin took to Facebook to express his grievance on Thursday.

Around six months ago, Zaki, posted at the Covid-19 unit of Comilla Medical College Hospital, tested positive for the infectious disease along with his parents and younger sister.

When their condition worsened, the four were admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital in Dhaka, where Dr Zaki’s schoolteacher mother Jahanara Nasrin, 56, died while undergoing treatment.

Six months later, on Wednesday, his paralyzed father Salaudddin, 66, who had been suffering from post-Covid-19 complications, died at a hospital in Comilla.

Dispirited, Dr Zaki posted on Facebook: “I was on night duty on the Covid-19 roster. Hearing that my father's condition had worsened, I left my workplace and brought him to the hospital. But I could not stop [his death].”

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He continued: “I became an orphan in six months. I killed them [his parents] by infecting them with coronavirus. No parents deserve a child like me.

“I think I shall not continue [with] this profession anymore,” Dr Zaki said in his social media post.

Requesting anonymity, another doctor working at the same hospital said: “There is no incentive, no quarantine facility, no security of life. We cannot even express our concerns as this is a government job.”

When contacted, Comilla Medical College Hospital Director Dr Rezaul Karim said the loss that Dr Zaki Uddin had suffered was “indeed painful.”

“Everyone who works here is at great risk. [But] we are government employees. We are working in line with ministry instructions.”