'Light at end of tunnel': Many elderly doctors take Covid-19 vaccine in Bengaluru

For senior citizens involved in the healthcare industry, the deployment of the vaccine was described as being akin to the light at the end of a long, angst-filled tunnel.

Among them is Dr K Subbalakshmi, 80, who works in the daycare section of the casualty ward at St Philomena’s Hospital in central Bengaluru, and who received the vaccine on Sunday. This makes her one of the oldest individuals, so far, in the state to be vaccinated for Covid-19.

“I was not at all afraid of receiving the vaccine. Rather, it was a moment of relief for me,” Dr Subbalakshmi said, explaining that for the last 10 months, she had been taking precautions to avoid being infected with Covid-19, which could have a potentially lethal effect due to her age.

“It was not just my precautions which helped, but also that of my colleagues who took pains to insulate me from any potential source of the infection,” added the doctor, who before joining Philomena’s had worked as a family doctor for the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). She had retired from BARC in 2000.

Among 165 people to received the vaccine on Sunday, Dr Subbalakshmi said that she now hopes that the vaccine will allow her to do her job in a more restful manner, but acknowledged that the full gamut of protection would only be applicable after she received the second dose 28 days later.

“Until then, I will continue to wear a mask and take precautions,” she said.

Dash to get vaccinated

Across the city, at Baptist Hospital on Ballari Road, a 67-year-old security vigilance officer, Chand Pasha, said he was elated after being injected with Covishield at around 3.30.

Pasha has been working at the hospital since 2015, a year after he retired as a police sub-inspector in Tumakuru district. Since the onset of Covid-19, he said he was worried about contracting the disease, especially since he is suffering from Type-2 diabetes.

“A lot of Covid-19 patients were brought to the hospital over the course of 2020, but by some good fortune, I never developed any symptoms of the disease,” he said. “But now that I have been vaccinated, I feel like I have something good in me. I’m overwhelmed,” he said.

Major challenges

For another doctor, the process of getting the vaccine proved a major challenge, especially since she was 250 km away from Bengaluru.

Dr Hemanandini, 49, consultant OBG at Manipal Hospitals, was travelling with her motorbike group near Bandipur on a pre-booked excursion when her number was called.

“I had to race back over 250 km to get back in time to get the vaccine,” Dr Hemanandini said, adding she managed to get vaccinated at 6.30 pm, shortly before the programme shut down for the day.