Meet the two women behind biggest jumbo Covid facilities in Mumbai

Mumbairsquos fight against the ongoing Covid19 pandemic would have been incomplete without the efforts of two women who led the biggest jumbo Covid centres in the cityWhile both the Covid19 care centresrsquo 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 societylsquoThose smiles on the recovered patientsrsquo faces give me the satisfaction of saving livesrsquo says Dr Neelam AndradeSince June 2020 over 26500 Covid19 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 thenSpeaking about the initial days of how this centre was built she said ldquoI 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 fullfledged hospitalrdquoldquoAfter 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 3700 beds for Covid19 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 coordinationrdquo she further saidShe then started preparing for the challenges such as manpower funds and supply of medicines She added ldquoThrough 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 centrerdquoDr Neelam Andrade at the NESCO covid jumbo centreNarrating how she handled all the three Covid19 waves Dr Andrade said ldquoThe 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 streamlinedrdquo Dr Neelam Andrade at the NESCO covid jumbo centreSpeaking about the learning experiences she added ldquoWe should face our challenges be focused and confident on what we are doing and be a team player Nothing is possible without teamworkldquoMy 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 centrerdquo said Dr AndradeWorking 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 centreDr Shriyan was part of the team responsible for setting up the Dahisar jumbo Covid centre which administered more than 10000 cases ldquoEstablishing a tent hospital with over 100 ICU beds was not an easy task I worked round the clock every day and hardly went back homerdquoAmong the many challenges she faced the biggest were arranging beds for the overflowing number of patients a fire incident at the centre and oxygen leakageThrough it all her family remained her biggest support especially her nineyearold daughter who hardly complained of her mothers absence ldquoFor 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 patientsrdquo said Dr ShriyanWhile Dr Shriyan too was infected with the virus during the second wave she hardly got any time to rest ldquoI 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 offrdquoAccording to Dr Shriyan the jumbo covid centres have helped change the mindset of the people in Mumbai She said ldquoUsually people think that only poor and lower middleclass population get treated at government facilities but coronavirus changed the scenario as all patients were treated equally with same facilitiesrdquo