Meet the two women behind biggest jumbo Covid facilities in Mumbai

Dr Neelam Andrade (L), Dr Deepa Shriyan

Mumbai's fight against the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic would have been incomplete without the efforts of two women who led the biggest jumbo Covid centres in the city.

While both the Covid-19 care centres' infrastructures were built from scratch on empty spaces, Dr Neelam Andrade, dean of NESCO jumbo centre, and Dr Deepa Shriyan, dean of Dahisar jumbo centre, have been tirelessly working in their respective centres from initial days. For them, duty comes first, and they feel that it is their duty towards society.

‘Those smiles on the recovered patients' faces give me the satisfaction of saving lives,' says Dr Neelam Andrade.

Since June 2020, over 26,500 Covid-19 positive patients took treatment and less mortality has been reported at the NESCO jumbo centre. Dr Neelam Andrade, 60, has been part of the infrastructure planning blueprint for the NESCO jumbo covid centre and she has also led the entire team of the medical staff since then.

Speaking about the initial days of how this centre was built, she said, "I was clueless how the NESCO exhibition centre would look like. I was shocked to see a huge empty space that had no medical infrastructure. With a small team, for the first 15 days, we sat under a tree planning to make this space a full-fledged hospital."

"After the initial planning, we started setting up the first hall with 285 beds and then slowly increased the number of halls to build a jumbo centre to accommodate over 3,700 beds for Covid-19 patients. The centre did not even have a basic washroom facility to begin with. "The entire structure was created within a few weeks' time and a control room was created for better coordination," she further said.

She then started preparing for the challenges such as manpower, funds and supply of medicines. She added, "Through word of mouth, former students of her dental college and social media, we were able to reach out to many people for manpower and donations to set up various facilities at the centre."

Dr Neelam Andrade at the NESCO covid jumbo centre.

Narrating how she handled all the three Covid-19 waves, Dr Andrade said, "The first wave was uncertain, and lack of knowledge and minimal manpower made the situation difficult to handle. During the second wave, we had trained staff as many people got experience of working in this environment. The third wave hardly created any impact, but by that time the procedures were in place and the process was streamlined."

Dr Neelam Andrade at the NESCO covid jumbo centre.

Speaking about the learning experiences, she added, "We should face our challenges, be focused and confident on what we are doing and be a team player. Nothing is possible without teamwork."

"My family was supportive and we decided to face the situation together. My daughter too is a doctor and has been working with me at the centre," said Dr Andrade.

Working as an associate professor in the Cooper Hospital, Dr Deepa Shriyan, 45, was posted at the Dahisar jumbo covid centre and was soon promoted as the dean of the centre.

Dr Shriyan was part of the team responsible for setting up the Dahisar jumbo Covid centre, which administered more than 10,000 cases. "Establishing a tent hospital with over 100 ICU beds was not an easy task. I worked round the clock every day and hardly went back home."

Among the many challenges she faced, the biggest were arranging beds for the overflowing number of patients, a fire incident at the centre and oxygen leakage.

Through it all, her family remained her biggest support, especially her nine-year-old daughter, who hardly complained of her mother's absence. "For three straight months, I did not see any of my family members. I am glad that my family understood my situation and never complained. My parents took care of my daughter and her studies, so that I could concentrate on the patients," said Dr Shriyan.

While Dr Shriyan too was infected with the virus during the second wave, she hardly got any time to rest. "I was admitted at my own centre for treatment, but was working from my bed so that everything ran smoothly. Too many patients were getting admitted and the staff had to handle a heavy workload. Within seven days, I recovered and started working again. To date, I have not taken a day off."

According to Dr Shriyan, the jumbo covid centres have helped change the mindset of the people in Mumbai. She said, "Usually people think that only poor and lower middle-class population get treated at government facilities, but coronavirus changed the scenario as all patients were treated equally with same facilities."