'A challenging year but hope for the future': Shropshire medic who faced life-and-death battle with coronavirus
Shortly after coronavirus struck the UK, a Shrewsbury A&E doctor faced his own life-and-death battle against an unknown common enemy.
As today marks a year since Boris Johnson announced the first lockdown, Dr Hamza Ansari has spoken of the unprecedented challenges posed by Covid-19 and his hopes for the future.
Last April, when he fell seriously ill with the virus, the 39-year-old was working on the trauma and orthopaedic ward at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
The foundation second year doctor has since moved to work with teams in A&E and says no one could have imagined what the past year would bring.
"It has been very difficult," he said. "When Covid started nobody knew it was going to be this bad but all of a sudden they declared a pandemic.
"People have been working around the clock, it's been very stressful for everyone."
After he contracted the virus, Dr Ansari described being frightened that he would die.
He was ill for a week, with serious shortness of breath and a temperature of more than 40 degrees, before being admitted to RSH and testing positive for Covid-19.
Dr Ansari's condition deteriorated and he was taken to the hospital's high dependency unit (HDU), with consultants telling him he was suffering respiratory failure.
He was given 100 per cent oxygen through a face mask, catheterised and fed through a tube.
Although he still suffers at times with shortness of breath, Dr Ansari says he's optimistic for the future and is looking forward to becoming a dad again in June when his wife is due to give birth.
"We have the vaccine that's come out which is great," he said.
Mood
"One thing we did struggle with was getting a definitive answer on whether my wife could be vaccinated or not because she is pregnant.
"She has been called in and will be going ahead with it.
"I am really happy that everyone is getting vaccinated. I think we've handled it well in Shropshire.
"In the past few weeks we've had fewer cases of Covid and the mood in the hospital is starting to pick up.
"Although cases are coming down, people are still getting Covid.
"I feel we are not as bad as last year but we are still in the frying pan and we haven't really come out of it yet.
"I'm hoping when more and more people are vaccinated we can start socialising again and we can start to resume a normal life."
Dr Ansari, who lives near to the hospital and is originally from Canada, took a fortnight off work after his own battle with Covid-19 but then went straight back to his duties, declaring it was 'all hands on deck' as half of his fellow doctors in the trauma unit were off sick or self-isolating.
During the ordeal, Dr Ansari was alone in the UK as his family had been unable to return from a vacation in Canada because of lockdown.
After he was discharged from hospital, it was his senior consultant, Lieutenant Colonel Carl Meyer, who cared for him at his family home until he was well enough to continue his recovery alone.
Looking ahead to the future, he says it will be important to take it 'one step at a time'.
He added: "I think it's very important for people to keep following the guidelines until we are out of the woods."
