COVID Warrior: This 66-year-old retired nurse from Mysuru has come back to provide services during the pandemic
Apart from providing her services, 66-year-old AS Geetha also helps deliver portable oxygen concentrators and counsels the family members of the patients.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have come across heartwarming stories of people going the extra mile to help others.
While the pandemic is taking a harsh toll on the frontline workers, 66-year-old AS Geetha, a retired nurse from Mysuru, decided to lend a helping hand by nursing COVID patients during the second wave.
She witnessed how people in Chamarajanagar district in Mysuru were dying due to lack of oxygen and the availability of healthcare services. Instead of sitting back and relaxing in her retirement days, she decided to come forward to serve the needy through her years of professional experience.
She not only provides her services as a nurse but also helps deliver portable oxygen concentrators and counsel the family members of the patients.
She expressed her inability to contribute financially, and therefore, felt an even greater responsibility to do her part by putting her knowledge of medicine and nursing in these dire times.
“Two of my acquaintances died without getting oxygen on time. When I was thinking how I could help such people, I was informed by my brother that Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) was delivering oxygen concentrators for patients, and if I could help them…and I readily joined them. I couldn’t help people financially… but serving people is part of my profession… so I decided to render my service this way,” she told The New Indian Express.
AS Geetha interacting with a patient in Chamrajnagar (Image: TNIE)
She said that she’s aware of the risk involved as a senior citizen. “I ensure I take all the necessary precautionary measures. Everyone in my house is a senior citizen. My mother, who is 96, stays with me. Though there is fear, I have kept it aside to continue my service.”
She has converted her house into an oxygen concentrator bank and whenever she gets a call, she and the SVYM staff deliver the concentrators to faraway places in an auto-rickshaw.
S Praveen Kumar, Chief Strategy Officer and Head, Education, SVYM, appreciated her work and said: “This fight has been possible only because of countless untiring efforts of warriors like Geetha.”
(Written by Vrinda Garg)
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Edited by Megha Reddy