Dr. Yasodra Rajkumar is our frontline worker of the week

Nov 22, 2020 News

Dr. Rajkumar, our Frontline Worker of the Week.

The doctor with her family.

In full PPP gear.

Kaieteur News – A career in the medical field can no doubt prove to be one that is quite demanding, one which often requires health workers to execute their duties even at unconventional hours. With the global COVID-19 Pandemic wreaking havoc all over the world, many health workers have related that the challenges of working in the medical field, is just unprecedented.
Despite the challenges, however, many frontline workers have remained steadfast as they continue to shield our nation against an invisible enemy time after time. Doctor Yasodra Rajkumar, is just one of the many special men and women who are devoted to keeping our population safe.
This 34-year-old professional, is presently attached to the Suddie Public Hospitalon the Essequibo Coast. Dr. Rajkumar, who is a general practitioner, has been assigned the Isolation and Quarantine areas since March of this year. As she described what she does on the frontline, the doctor said, “Basically we see the patients in the isolation and quarantine area, we attend to them every day we ensure they get their medicine and other needs are fulfilled.”
According to her, there are times when she’d have to hang up the doctor cloak, and approach her patients from an empathetic stand point. “Apart from being a doctor, we also have to counsel our patients and try as much as possible to make them comfortable.” She goes on to say, “we know isolation is not easy for them. Some of them are parents and they have to spend fourteen days alone, away from their kids. So we try to accommodate them as much as possible, even to the point that we pray with them… We see them as friends, and as time passes by that bond evolves to the point that we feel like family.”

Early beginning
Though she has been working on the Essequibo Coast for the past seven years, Dr. Rajkumar actually hails from Green Field, located on the East Coast of Demerara. She was the youngest of three siblings, parented by Harrilall and Indrawattee Rajkumar. Rajkumar went on to attend the Clonbrook Primary School, before attending the Cove and John Secondary school.
As she went on to give us a little more insight on her childhood, she said, “My childhood was pretty normal I guess. I grew up with both my parents and siblings. As it relates to the education aspect though, I’m the only one that completed secondary education. My older brother and sister never completed for some reason.”
Having completed her secondary education with ten CXC subjects, young Rajkumar proceeded to sixth for at Queens College, where she perused science and biology.

Career dilemma
After completing sixth form, Dr. Rajkumar plunged into the teaching profession. Being the kind of woman who loves a challenge, Rajkumar also applied for a Cuban scholarship. After sticking around for some time, she eventually enrolled at the Cyril Potter College of Education CPCE. There she met her husband, Latchamn Bharrat, who is also a doctor today.
After a year in CPCE, she finally got the news she had been waiting for – she had finally been accepted to Cuba. She said that with little hesitation, she took up the opportunity and prepared herself for the next six years in that country. She said, “I went along with the idea not knowing much about what I was getting into. I knew I was going into a new country, and of course it’ll be a different lifestyle, so I was preparing for that. Also at that time I was vegetarian so I also prepared myself mentally how I would adjust.”
Coping in a strange place
When asked how she coped in a foreign country that was much different than her home land, Rajkumar said that the support her fellow colleagues displayed played a great role in making Cuba feel like home. “We provided support to each other to such an extent that in the end we were like one family… usually we would celebrate all our Guyanese holidays together and that brought everyone together. The togetherness helped us pass those years.” said Dr. Rajkumar. In the year 2013, she returned to Guyana as a qualified Doctor. She was initially assigned Linden, but opted to be transferred to Essequibo so that she could be with her husband.

A young family of her own
Today, she shares two boys along with her husband Dr. Latchamn Bharrat. Rajkumar said that one of the greatest challenges within her family is that the quality of time spent with her two and five years old sons is just insufficient. She went on to say, “Sometimes because both my husband and I have to go on call, we spend very little time with the children. Personally that’s something I wish we had more time of because sometimes we only see them for a few hours and that’s the biggest challenge.”
For a mother of two young kids, working day after day on the frontline, safety is of crucial importance, especially for the sake of her kids. “I trying my best to be careful so that I don’t take anything home with me… at the isolation area there’s a decontamination area we have to shower and change before going home but even when I reach home I shower again.”

Challenges on the frontline
Most health care providers who spoke with Kaieteur News during previous interviews had indicated that secondary posttraumatic stress, along with trauma, can severely affect a health care provider.
According to Dr. Rajkumar, helping a patient cope under stressful situations, can sometimes pose a challenge. She went on to explain, saying, “It can be a bit challenging sometimes but we do try our best to provide the best that’s necessary for our patients. We have had kids, we’ve had families in there and they do get bored because it’s totally different from what they are used to. I try to be as strong as I can because it can have a mental effect but I try to manage.”

Team work is essential
Rajkumar said that working on the frontline, has strengthen the bond between health care workers. She told Kaieteur News that on the frontline, there are doctors, nurses, midwives and even ward maids, all of whom depend tremendously on each other. “On the frontline I believe we’ve bonded. We try to get through this together because we all have families at home waiting for us, so we try to cope as best as we can in there,” said Yasodra.
The best part about being a doctor
When asked, what’s the best part about being a doctor, Dr. Yasodra replied with a smile, saying, “The best part about being a doctor is seeing your patient discharge and seeing them feeling better and seeing them in a better state that they came in.”
Dr. Rajkumar admitted that COVID-19 is unlike anything she has prepared for in her medical career. She pointed out that the fact that most cases are asymptomatic, makes COVID-19 enhances the chance of infection. “It is something to be afraid of because you can’t say when you can be infected because persons can be walking around without symptoms. That is why it is important for patients to wear masks and wash hands frequently.
We can win this
For now, it seems as though COVID-19 is no hurry to disappear soon. Dr. Yasodra stressed that we all can do our part to minimize the spread of the virus. As the interview closed, Dr. Rajkumar said, “COVID-19seems not to be going anywhere soon so we have to continue taking measures until it goes away.”
She went on to say, “I will like to encourage my fellow Guyanese to continue wearing their face masks, use your sanitizers and make sure you wash your hands frequently. If we all do this, we can win in the fight and hopefully reduce the numbers.”