Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Attendant Mark Luckie

Aug 16, 2020 News

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“It is time people open their eyes and see that COVID is real and not a joke. People need to be honest with themselves and stop taking this thing lightly. I have seen many people who are suspected to have the disease and it isn’t an easy thing for them to deal with it. We all need to go about our day to day activities carefully wearing our masks, sanitising always and just do what we have to do, because this thing is real.”

By Sharmain Grainger

Months after the outbreak of COVID-19 and a steady increase of cases, there are still those among us who are somehow convinced that this infectious disease is not a “real thing”. “It was just an elections gimmick to keep people locked up,” some have proclaimed with Sherlock Holmes-like tenacity not realising that such confabulation can yield grim, even fatal, consequences.
Some health workers are on the brink of losing hope, for without adherence to simple precautions such as social distancing, hygienic practices and wearing of face masks when out, all the gains that have been made over the months could evaporate.
With an unprecedented rate of infection, and the fact that a number of health workers themselves have fallen prey too, it may not be long now before each household across our 83,000 square miles is infiltrated.
“It is unfair that people are just breaking the rules and we have to pay…they are making our lives harder,” said a despondent health worker this past week who has been on the frontline waging war against COVID-19 since it penetrated our shores.
Exactly what will it take for persons to recognise the danger they are putting themselves and others in by operating in a callous manner believing that “COVID is a mythical idea conjured by politicians with sinister intentions”?
Our frontline worker this week, Mark Luckie, has no answers for this question. What he does know, however, is that from his vantage point as the supervisor of attendants at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), he sees far too many people, inflicted with the novel coronavirus disease, suffering in unprecedented ways.
“COVID is real!” said Luckie even as he insisted that “it is time people open their eyes and see that COVID is real and not a joke. People need to be honest with themselves and stop taking this thing lightly. I have seen many people who are suspected to have the disease and it isn’t an easy thing for them to deal with it. We all need to go about our day to day activities carefully wearing our masks, sanitising always and just do what we have to do, because this thing is real.”

ATTENDANT ROLE

The role of an attendant is pretty straight forward. It entails, according to Luckie, transiting patients from one location to another within the compound of the hospital as part of their treatment protocol. “We may have to trans a patient from an ambulance to Accident and Emergency or from Accident and Emergency to the various wards in wheelchairs or on stretchers,” Luckie explained recently. But it takes a bit more dedication and precision to be named the supervisor of attendants. “I think I became the supervisor because I learn fast and I try to do what I am told in terms of how to deal with the patients when you have to move them around,” said Luckie.
It was around the late 1990s Luckie joined the attendant crew at the GPHC. He recalled it was a friend who told him of the vacancy. Recounting that juncture of his life, the veteran attendant said, “I adjusted quickly to my environment and I am a type of person, whatever I do, I try to do it to the best of my ability.”
It was no surprise then that he is currently one of the key attendants tasked with transiting COVID-19 patients at the premier public health facility.
“They (GPHC) picked me, I believe, because of my skills in handling patients. Although there is some amount of fear in dealing with COVID patients, I am doing things according to my training, so it makes me feel bold and confident to deal with them,” Luckie assured.
Attendants at the GPHC were exposed to training to ensure they remain safe while dealing with patients. These sessions, Luckie said, were facilitated by the COVID-19 team captain, Mr. Dexter Williams, and the COVID team doctor and nurse, and because of such training, “I am less worried about being infected.”
Added to this, he confided that “the fact that you are helping someone in their time of need; just to support them in that small way and then hear, even one or two, say thank you…just to hear that gives you the courage to keep doing what you’re doing every day.”

 

ANOTHER LAND’

But Luckie could have been fighting the COVID-19 war in another land had he and his mother, Annette Luckie, not decided to return to their homeland. You see when Luckie was just a boy, his mother, an English teacher, responded to a vacancy to teach in the Bahamas.
She wasn’t prepared to leave her only child, Luckie, behind. Luckie’s mother gave birth to him on September 15, 1982 and to her he was, and still is, her pride and joy.
Reflecting on his boyhood days, Luckie, an avid reader, recalled being raised at Grove on the East Bank of Demerara, where he currently resides. He attended the Grove Primary School before he and his mother migrated. He completed further studies in the Bahamas.
But after a while, the land of their birth beckoned, and the two decided to return. As a man, Luckie knew that he needed to secure a job, and fast, to assist his mother. It was during this quest that he landed the attendant job at the GPHC and never looked back.
Always a faithful worker, he was quickly recognised and eventually promoted to supervisor, a position he has held for the past four years. “I am a part of a hardworking team that has love for the job, and we are dedicated to what we do,” he shared.
He believes that COVID-19 has made the team even more diligent in performing daily duties. “There is no question about it, safety is today more important than ever and we try our best to do this so that we can keep ourselves safe, our co-workers safe and most of all the patients safe,” he added.
As part of the safety regimen, Luckie said that he, and his colleagues, are always garbed in personal protective equipment, constantly wash or sanitise their hands, and an important tactic, he noted, is to “avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth”.
Based on the training sessions he has been exposed to, an individual’s continued existence could be dependent on simply adhering to COVID-19 precautions.
Although evidence suggests that the coronavirus is on an unprecedented rampage, Luckie insists that “the love for my job and working with the COVID team at the GPHC” will forever keep him grounded.

 

 

 

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