SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A UC San Diego medical student wouldn't let the risk of catching coronavirus while pregnant stop her from treating other pregnant women amid the outbreak.
Milli Desai's final year of medical school changed dramatically amid the coronavirus outbreak.
What didn't change: her commitment to treating pregnant women at the Jacobs Medical Center.
“I was working on things like labor and delivery and different kinds of things that are absolutely essential and kept going,” Desai said.
Desai is studying to become an OBGYN. She helps people coming in for routine appointments as well as those with urgent pregnancy matters. The unscheduled patients were not necessarily able to take a COVID test before coming in. That posed a dilemma for Desai last year, because she, herself, was pregnant.
“In my mind personally I felt like it was a huge risk to be exposing a possible baby and child to something that I really like I had no control over and that was really, scary,” she said.
Still, Desai said she never felt unsafe because she had adequate PPE and medical center staff worked to limit her exposure
Plus, her presence on the floor provided something of a comfort for moms to be, limited to just one guest in the delivery room.
“It was very special and meaningful and I felt like, if they can't have other people with them then, we need to be their community and their support people,” she said.
When August came around and it was time to give birth to little Arahan, of course Desai and her husband Arvin chose to welcome him to the world at the Jacobs Medical Center
“Which really came full circle,” Desai said.
Desai is scheduled to graduate this year. She finds out in March where her residency will be. She hopes to stay at UC San Diego.
