GILGIT:
I have lived my worst nightmare. It was not the coronavirus, but the prolonged treatment [read: observation] In isolation that made it a hellish experience. Imagine being confined to a small room with no social interaction for almost a month. The doctors and nurses were the only visitors, who also checked on me once or twice a day.
If you are sick, you need your loved ones around you. The feeling of having someone who cares about you gives you strength to fight the disease. On the contrary, social isolation makes you more vulnerable to diseases. Your immune system does not respond properly in isolation and takes longer to heal.
In my case, it wasn’t just me; My wife also shared the ordeal of isolation at Mohammadabad Hospital, Danyore, Gilgit-Baltistan. Curiously, he did not present any symptoms, but tested positive for the virus. We were both in the isolation room, while our five children were at home, alone and worried.
The ordeal began after a trip to Iran. My wife and I went with a group of 22 pilgrims to visit the holy shrines of Iran. Most of the time we stayed in Qom, although our pilgrimage also took us to Mashhad and neighboring Iraq.
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On February 22, we were preparing to return to Pakistan when we learned of the outbreak of a contagious disease in Qom. Until then I didn’t know much about the coronavirus.
On February 25 we took a flight to Lahore. At Tehran airport they did not allow anyone to board the flight without passing a checkpoint. None of us were sick. At the Lahore airport they examined us again. We drove to Rawalpindi where we stayed for two days. As fellow pilgrims dispersed, we took a bus to Gilgit on February 28 and reached our village Nomal, about 15 kilometers from Gilgit town, in the afternoon.
At night I felt fever. I took it for travel fatigue, took over-the-counter fever reducers from my neighbor, and tried to sleep. It didn’t help. I started to get chills.
The next morning, I called the Gilgit district central hospital and told the doctors about my trip and my fever. A team of doctors immediately came to see me and my wife. We were then taken in an ambulance to DHQ hospital. They took samples from us to test us for the new coronavirus, while they transferred us to the Civil Hospital Basin. The samples were sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad for PCR testing because the facilities were not available in Gilgit-Baltistan. I lost my appetite but tried to force feed myself so I could muster some energy to fight my illness. After a couple of days, we received our test reports from the NIH: we both tested positive for COVID-19.
After the diagnosis, we were shifted to Mohammadabad Hospital, where we would stay for the next 25 days. Interestingly, by then my fever had disappeared, while I had no cough, no muscle pain, no sore throat, and no shortness of breath. My appetite returned to normal. [I started eating more than I normally do]. My wife remained asymptomatic throughout this time.
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I am a 51-year-old ex-military man and my wife is 45. I had heard that the coronavirus could be deadly for people my age or older. The doctors tried to calm me down. But honestly, I wasn’t scared one bit. It is part of our faith that every living thing has to die someday. He knew that if he was destined to die, he would die no matter what. But if I don’t run out of time, this virus will never be able to kill me.
We were tested several times during our nightmarish 25 day stay. We had no symptoms, but we would still test positive. I heard that my wife’s reports were mixed up with those of another patient at the NIH.
Fortunately, in the meantime, PCR testing facilities became available in Gilgit and we were tested locally for the first time. The results were negative and a repeat test a day later confirmed that the virus was outside our bodies. It was a great relief.
We were discharged from the hospital on March 28, but the doctors said we should avoid socializing for 14 days. We have rented a house in the city of Gilgit to spend these two weeks here. It’s been five days and we’re counting the days until we’re completely safe.
My advice to the sick: do not fear this virus. Keep your faith in God and strengthen your will, Inshallah you will defeat it. I tell everyone else to take all possible precautions. If not out of concern about the virus, then think about the ordeal that isolation can create.
(Narrated to Naveed Hussain)
