I have been in the nursing profession since 2019, but never have I experienced a night like the one we spent on August 14. I have faced many adversities, including the trying times of Covid, when we saw many of our colleagues die while serving patients, but August 14 was the first time I was afraid for my life.
I was looking after eight patients on the sixth floor Trauma ward, when I heard commotion outside.I looked through the window and saw a mob entering our hospital and an even larger mob vandalising whatever they could lay their hands on. A senior nurse called me to secure the ward and ensure patients were safe. Over the next few minutes, we locked the ward from inside, switched off the lights and also carried some expensive machines to an upper floor and secured them. The patients, too, started realising something was wrong, but we tried to calm them down.
As we waited with bated breath, hoping the mob wouldn’t run up to our ward, we could hear my colleagues on the lower floors running for safety. Some cops came and hid under patient’s bed linen.
The vandalism continued for around 40 minutes, but each minute spent inside the ward was like an hour. Two days have passed, but I still can’t get over the trauma we experienced that day. We are still serving patients and many of us are on night duty, but we can’t feel safe anymore.
(Majumder, a nurse, spoke to Sumati Yengkhom)
I was looking after eight patients on the sixth floor Trauma ward, when I heard commotion outside.I looked through the window and saw a mob entering our hospital and an even larger mob vandalising whatever they could lay their hands on. A senior nurse called me to secure the ward and ensure patients were safe. Over the next few minutes, we locked the ward from inside, switched off the lights and also carried some expensive machines to an upper floor and secured them. The patients, too, started realising something was wrong, but we tried to calm them down.
As we waited with bated breath, hoping the mob wouldn’t run up to our ward, we could hear my colleagues on the lower floors running for safety. Some cops came and hid under patient’s bed linen.
The vandalism continued for around 40 minutes, but each minute spent inside the ward was like an hour. Two days have passed, but I still can’t get over the trauma we experienced that day. We are still serving patients and many of us are on night duty, but we can’t feel safe anymore.
(Majumder, a nurse, spoke to Sumati Yengkhom)
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