A recent medical school graduate, Dr Maryam Shabeeha was thrilled when she saw an advertisement calling for doctors at a government hospital in Mangaluru which has been designated for Covid-19 since April.
According to a report in the Times of India, the 25-year-old interviewed for the position and secured the job soon after.
She has been working at Wenlock Hospital ever since, but all through, Shabeeha kept this news a secret from her mother.
Shabeeha told ToI that she decided against telling her mother about her job due to the stigma associated with coronavirus and the fear of contracting the disease. She managed to keep it a secret for a month. But finally, her father decided that it was time her mother knew. Sabeeha says that now, her mother is concerned about her health, but is proud of what she's doing.
She graduated from Yenepoya Medical College last year. Her father is a businessman and her mother is a homemaker.
Shabeeha says she feels blessed to serve the people during a pandemic and adds that the challenge is to treat patients who are depressed, even though many of them are stable or asymptomatic.
"I am touched when they ask me to come for rounds everyday. Initially, we had very few patients, but now we have around 90 patients," Shabeeha was quoted as saying by ToI.
A small silver lining has emerged for her as her 12-hour shift has now been reduced to six hours.
Her colleagues include Dr Muzammil M Mohammed, who was employed at a cooperative hospital in Kasargod. Mohammed used to commute to Kerala for work daily but was forced to quit after the border was closed during the nationwide lockdown.
Mohammed explains that like Shabeeha, his family too was also worried about his health and it took some time to persuade them.
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