Seeking medical help sans delay leads to faster recovery

Visakhapatnam: When Kesarapu Srinu Ramesh suffered from fever, like all others, he too gulped down 'Dolo-650' for the next two days.

Though his fever subsided, Srinu, a transport contractor, was shocked to see his son K Kiran, studying second year B. Tech, developing temperature. "We rushed him to a private lab at VIP Road to get ourselves tested for Covid-19," explains Srinu.

Much to his surprise, the RT-PCR results came out to be negative. "However, both me and my son lost the sense of smell and taste the same day. This made us revisit the lab and get ourselves retested, although the results showed negative again," he shares.

However, the fear of contracting the infection did not leave Srinu as he consulted a doctor who suggested the father and the son go for a CT scan. The scanning report, however, showed that both of them were infected.

While his son went for home isolation, Srinu got himself admitted into Pradhama Hospital, Venkojipalem. "After five-day-long treatment, I got discharged. Initially, when we tested negative twice, we continued to carry on with our routine at home. But as soon as I got hospitalised, my 87-year-old mother K Ratnam too got infected. She could hardly eat anything. So, I got her admitted in another hospital in Gajuwaka. I was concerned about my family as they were struggling all alone at home," he shares.

Even after getting discharged, Srinu and his mother along with his son continued isolating themselves at home for another 10 days. "I ensured that my mother did not slip into depression as I kept motivating her that this too shall pass," says the Covid survivor.

According to Srinu, conquering fear is half the battle won and the rest can be fought with nutritious food and medication to defeat Covid-19. "But the moment we reached home, my wife Kesarapu Lakshmi showed mild symptoms of Covid-19. Fortunately, four of us have recovered from the virus successfully with timely treatment," Srinu shares.

After his recovery from the infection, fear resurfaced when Srinu developed an eye infection two days later. "With the black fungus cases on rise, the eye infection really scared me. But when I got tested, the doctor assured me that it's a normal eye infection and prescribed medicines for a couple of days," recalls Srinu, heaving a sigh of relief.

Gradually, with things falling in place, Srinu suggests that one should keep a tab on early signs of Covid-19 and get treated under proper guidance of the doctors without any delay.