Gurugram (Haryana) [India], May 25: The second wave of the COVID pandemic has impacted everyone there is hardly any family that has not been impacted. While countless families are still mourning their loved ones, a bigger question stares us in the face. What if the third wave is bigger and impacts more people?
People like Dr. Deepak Shokeen have started preparing for the third wave as he is setting up a 50-bed not-for-profit medical facility to provide medical help for the economically underprivileged. “We pray that the third wave doesn’t come but we have to be prepared. Governments have to take measures but we cannot leave everything to them and every citizen has to contribute,” he said.
25-year-old Dr. Shokeen has been active in social work since his teens but jumped into COVID relief two months ago when he joined Team Deepender, started by Haryana Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda. “We were all focused on doing all we could by helping people in need,” he said.
Deepak helped save more than 80 lives by his Plasma donation and saved countless other lives by helping with hospital admissions and providing life-saving drugs. Called Plasma Boy by his teammates, he says the pandemic has transformed the way he looks at life and redefined his priorities.
Over the last two months, Dr. Shokeen has answered close to 300 calls for help, which included requests for oxygen, hospital beds, life-saving medicines, and plasma. “Plasma donation was the most difficult part of relief work. “The first and the biggest job is to find the donor as only a recovered patient donate and then convince them that it would help save someone’s life. It is extremely satisfying when you can find a donor of a rare blood group like O negative and you can bring back hope to people who slipping into grief and despair,” he said.
Dr. Shokeen, who now aspires to become a social entrepreneur by providing affordable healthcare to all, feels the COVID pandemic has been life-changing. “The COVID pandemic has forced all of us to rethink about life. We now have a better understanding of what is important and what is transactional. As a society, we now understand that we share a common fate, and saving every human life matters more than anything else,” he says.
(Syndicated press content is neither written, edited or endorsed by ED Times)
