‘No one can imagine our trauma’: How India’s doctors silently suffered during deadly second wave

In a country the WHO has labelled the ‘most depressed’ in the world, doctors talk to Shweta Sharma about making exhausting life-and-death decisions during India’s second Covid wave

Doctors and healthcare staff wearing PPE attend to Covid-19 patients inside a converted banqueting hall (SOPA/Shutterstock)

In May, as India faced the full brunt of the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, and hospitals ran out of beds and medical oxygen, a 35-year-old doctor at one of Delhi’s top private hospitals died by suicide.

Dr Vivek Rai, who was treating Covid patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Max Hospital in Saket, left behind a pregnant wife and a note that said he “wished happiness for everyone”.

Hidden in the physical and economic toll of Covid-19 are stories of a mental health pandemic, especially among frontline healthcare workers fighting to cope amid an unprecedented crisis.