Dr Shilpa Patel Vadodara: At 3.30 am on Thursday morning, her mother passed away in the Covid ICU after a week’s battle with the virus. Six hours later, Dr Shilpa Patel, an associate professor with anatomy department at state-run SSG Hospital, was back in the saddle trying to save other lives. After carrying out the last rites of her 77-year-old mother, Kanta Ambalal Patel, Dr Patel diligently donned her PPE suit once again — staying true to her mother’s words — duty before everything else! Dr Rahul Parmar too lost his mother, Kanta Parmar, 67, who passed away from age-related issues in Gandhinagar on Thursday. But Parmar, who as nodal officer for Covid management and part of dead body disposal team at Central Gujarat’s biggest hospital, finished the cremation rituals and rushed back to join duty on Friday. “It was a natural death. I finished the cremation rituals with my family and returned to Vadodara,” said Parmar, who is with Preventive and Social Medicine Department at SSG.