Dal medical student volunteers to help at epicentre of N.S. COVID-19 outbreak

Graduation is on hold for Dalhousie University medical student Manveer Bal, so he's decided to spend his newfound free time volunteering at the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nova Scotia.

Bal works five 12-hour shifts a week at the Northwood long-term care home in Halifax, taking residents' temperatures and blood pressure and communicating that information to doctors and nurses.

He's one of three medical students from the university pitching in to help at the facility that's been hard hit by the coronavirus. Forty residents have now died due to complications caused by COVID-19.

"The concern for my health, I think, is a lower priority. I'm a bit more concerned about the people here," Bal told CBC's Maritime Noon on Friday during his shift at the facility. 

He said there's an "amazing amount of [personal protective equipment] here." He gets his temperature checked every day and closely monitors whether he's developing symptoms.

"At the end of the day, the patients go through so much more," he said. "The patients' families go through so much more, and I think it's kind of important to always put the focus back on them."

The 27-year-old from Malaysia has been living in Nova Scotia for two years, and said volunteering at Northwood during the pandemic is a way to give back to his adopted home. 

"I've been inspired by a lot of the other volunteers here who are doing like a tremendous amount of work ... from housekeeping staff to the HR department to the security," he said. 

Nurses from the COVID-19 unit at the QEII Hospital were brought in to help at Northwood in late April. Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health for the province, has defended the facility's response to the outbreak, saying it did everything it could with the information it had to limit the spread.

Bal doesn't have much contact with family members, but said the patients he speaks with are staying positive. 

He said having more people at the facility means more communication with residents and takes some of the burden off staff. 

"Just having other people around to talk to and share experience can be quite therapeutic. And emotionally it does take a toll, but I think we are all helping each other out getting through this," he said. 

Wants to stay in Nova Scotia 

He said his time at Northwood has been eye-opening on-the-ground training for a career in medicine. It's taught him just how much goes into patient care from cleaning to the logistics of moving people from room to room. 

"It's been a great learning experience in the sense of all the other roles that people play in the hospital," he said. 

Because Bal is a foreign medical student, he said he can't do his residency in Nova Scotia. He dreams of working as a family doctor in a rural community in the province.

"I'm going to try my best to stick around in Nova Scotia to help as much as possible but … I might have to leave the province," he said.

He'll volunteer at Northwood as long as he's needed, he said. 

"I've been really really happy here. People have been lovely and I just wanted to give back to this community in any way possible."