Kesses MP Swarup Mishra speaks out on battle with Covid

“I am lucky to be alive. Even my own hospital and top-notch doctors could not manage my severe Covid-19 situation,” Kesses MP Swarup Mishra reveals.

For about two weeks in November, a diabetic Dr Mishra was in a grueling battle to save his life after contracting Covid-19.

With a profound fear all over his face, the medical doctor-cum-politician, who also owns the Mediheal Group of Hospitals, says his severe Covid-19 fight was a kiss of death.

The first time MP has been battling diabetes, a pre-existing condition that put him within the category of the most vulnerable persons for severe Covid-19.

Dr Mishra who is rarely available in large political rallies, but known for meeting big crowds during philanthropic activities in Kesses constituency, Uasin Gishu County, felt unusual symptoms at the initial stage before he was taken to Mediheal Hospital in Nairobi.

“The doctors in my hospital were emotionally attached to me. Others are my relatives and it was difficult for them to handle the situation. We also didn’t have Covid-19 beds and if I had been admitted in the facility I would infect other patients,” the lawmaker says.

When the symptoms started showing, Dr Mishra says he started suspecting that he had coronavirus.

“I felt bad. I was becoming weaker and weaker. It was becoming difficult to breathe, and being a doctor, I suspected Covid-19. I took a Covid-19 test and the results took long as my condition got worse,” said Dr Mishra.

Apart from the difficulty in breathing, the MP says he felt an abnormal rise in body temperature as he waited the test results, which two days later came out positive.

“I started thinking about how I contracted Covid when I was strictly following the government protocols. Todate I still don’t understand how I got it.

"I discovered that there are many unknowns and puzzles about Covid-19 and one of them is how it spreads,” he said on Monday in an interview with The Standard.

He says after three days, an expert sought by his hospital came in and advised that he be rushed to Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi, for urgent management of the condition.

The lawmaker's respiration improved three hours upon arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital.

Lung damage At Aga Khan, the MP says he spent three days at the high dependency unit (HDU) after doctors established that eight per cent of his lungs had been damaged and that there was hope to restore them.

Another challenge to the management of his condition would arise after the fifth day in hospital – his liver was found to not be functioning optimally, hindering an injection that was meant to stabilise him.

“My condition deteriorated on the fifth day, which was a Saturday. I was almost collapsing as I gasped for breath. At that time, doctors at the facility, including my wife who is also a medic, were beginning to get worried. 

"I was lucky because my lungs were partially damaged. It is irreparable when 45 per cent of the lungs is damaged, and doctors normally have little to do when the damage is so severe,” he further explains.

He continues: “Doctors prescribed a drug that would stabilise me. But the drug, according to my doctors, would damage my liver which was already compromised by excessive use of alcohol.”

Matter of life and death

Dr Mishra says his wife asked the doctors to inject him with the drug, noting that it was a matter of life and death.

He said his wife signed the consent forms, and he was injected, and luckily, it didn’t damage his liver.

“Miraculously, my organs started functioning four days after the injection, but my sugar levels were still abnormally high,” he says.

Dr Mishra was later moved to the isolation ward where he spent another week under close management.

At the isolation ward, the legislator observed and learnt that doctors and other health workers attending to Covid-19 patients are at a high risk of contracting the disease.

He says little is known about the strain of the virus that causes Covid-19 as well as its clinical features.

“Nothing is known about Covid-19 management. It is my hope that a vaccine is found before March 2021,” he says.

“I decided to quit alcohol after surviving. I also stay at home and go out when it is absolutely necessary."

Without quoting the amount he spent on his treatment, the MP says it is too expensive to manage Covid-19 cases in Kenya.

He challenged the state to invest more on equipping county hospitals, saying an oxygen plant should be established in every county.

“We have learnt that there are many deaths that can be prevented by the availability of oxygen,” he said.