Family inspires forerunner doctor to save coronavirus patients

The family of 42-year-old Dr Muhammad Asaduzzaman were the first to realise the dangers to which he was subjecting himself when he volunteered to treat the first COVID-19 patients at the Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital (KBFGH) in Dhaka.

“I received the highest level of motivation from my mother,” the Assistant Professor of Critical Medicine at Dhaka Medical College Hospital said when he was asked to reveal his source of inspiration.

“She encouraged me to do it despite the dangers. She told me that I was a doctor and her child and that I shouldn’t be afraid because I was serving people in dire need and God would look after me.”

The medic, currently the head of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the KBFGH, said that another reason he accepted the challenge was by asking himself what he would have done if a Corona patient had been his father, mother, brother or sister.

Intensive care with equipment supplied by UNICEF

Dr Asaduzzaman said that the role of his gynaecologist wife Dr Choudhury Taslima Nasrin and his two children were also critical in his decision because it would not have been possible for him to treat COVID-19 patients without their support.

But the nature of his work meant that he had to make the sacrifice of physically distancing himself from his family since the period he began treating COVID-19 patients in early March when the first cases in Bangladesh were admitted to KBFGH.

‘My children are very eager to come closer to me. But I cannot allow them to do so because I must be in self-quarantine,” he said. “They have asked me to drive coronavirus out of Bangladesh [so they can see me] and because they will then be allowed to go outside and play.”

Dr Aasduzzaman came to KBFGH in February to set up an ICU along with ventilators, dialysis machines and oxygen supply systems as part of Bangladesh’s coronavirus preparedness plan. KBGFH is the first COVID-19 designated health facility in the country, and much of its equipment was supplied by UNICEF, which has been supporting the Government of Bangladesh since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With financial support from the Asia Development Bank, UNICEF Bangladesh is supplying essential medical equipment for case management of COVID-19 patients in selected government hospitals. The first consignment of this equipment included 14 ventilators, 24 respirators, 57 pulse oximeters and 12 laryngoscope sets for adults and children.

Volunteered to treat coronavirus patients

Dr Asaduzzaman was one of the first to volunteer to treat Corona patients at a time when there was fear among fellow doctors about treating the virus.

“I volunteered to treat one of the first COVID-19 patients on 11 March along with two other medics,” Dr Aasduzzaman said. “It was a huge moment for us and other colleagues who also came forward to support patients one after another.”

It was a contrasting experience for Dr Aasduzzaman. On the one hand he saw a fellow doctor die from COVID-19, but on the other he saw numerous patients recover from critical conditions, including renal failure and heart disease thanks to the facilities provided by the new ICU.

And it is not only the health workers who are stepping up. On one occasion a coronavirus patient urgently needed additional dialysis, but no-one knew how to complete the installation of the ICU’s new dialysis machine.

“As a last resort, we half-heartedly turned to the vendor engineer who had installed the dialysis machine. As a great human being, he supported us, going well beyond his professional responsibility.”

The patient has now recovered and returned to his residence.