Burnout

Fellow medical doctor, I was once like you, overworked and overwhelmed.

I was on the verge of burnout and in dire need of change. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted, stuck in my situation, and completely isolated and invisible in my suffering.

The combination of living with a spinal cord injury, motherhood, full-time work, and studying for fellowship exams exhausted me. I ignored the warning signs of burnout such as becoming overwhelmed, constantly worrying and stressed over small things and not sleeping well. I felt disconnected from myself and others around me. 

Yet I kept pushing through. 

It took a traumatic spinal cord injury in 2008 to transform my life.

The experience was a radical awakening. I was told that I would never walk again.

On one fine Spring Day in 2008, my life changed forever. I was walking to work when I was hit by a car at high speed. My body was flung into the sky, and as I hovered, like a slow-motion movie, a few thoughts ran through my head.

It can be said that the pandemic has impacted many of us around the world, especially the frontline healthcare workers, myself included and it’s time we address these issues and bring the conversation into the open.

Politicians talk about opening the borders for travel and revitalisation post COVID-19. What they fail to talk about is the emotional pain that the frontline healthcare workers went through during the pandemic and their lasting effect on the healthcare industry and economy as a whole.