The COVID – 19 pandemic has entered its third year now. It has us some bad times but at the same time increasing our capacity to deal with adversity. The unpredictability of lockdowns and the uncertainty of health have inspired us to find new ways to treat our patients based on telephonic conversations, high-quality photographs, and electronic medical records.
This is a story of a 48 years old male, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, who presented to us with a corneal ulcer in the right eye. The patient was seen by multiple practitioners and treated medically for a few days without improvement. As a lockdown was impending, and inter-state travel would be next to impossible, a decision for the same day therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty was taken. There were concerns about follow up after the surgery, but we chose the lesser evil. The patient was seen on the first post-operative day and discharged. A lockdown was announced on the same day. But the patient had entered the safe confines of his house by then. Further follow-ups were done through serial photographs, religiously shared by the patient's family. He visited us three months later and was doing well. After this visit, he continued to consult via teleconsultation and get local practitioners' required tests.
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