When Aditya Kumar’s father arrived in Bhopal at the crack of dawn on June 6, his oxygen saturation levels were less than 40 per cent. “People were appalled and shocked to learn how a man so ill and weak could make a train journey all the way from Delhi. Please trust me, my father followed all social distancing norms. We just had no choice,” says Aditya Nekya, 18, who is preparing for NEET exams in Bhopal.
On May 30, his 42-year-old father applied for leave at his workplace—a small electronic media house in Noida—after he developed cold and fever. In the next few days, the Mayur Vihar resident tried to get a prescription for a Covid-19 test from local doctors. But they just gave him medicines for cold and fever. He finally got a prescription from an ESI hospital on June 4, and he set off in his car with his daughter for the hospitals listed in it: Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. But the three hospitals said they were not conducting Covid-19 tests, said Aditya. His father was growing weaker with every passing hour.
“He never had any severe medical problems,” says Aditya. “He was a staunch AAP supporter and was on good terms with the local councillor. Still, he was reduced to this state.”
Out of sheer desperation, Aditya booked a night train for his father to come to Bhopal so that he and his uncle could get him tested there. On June 7, a day after his father had arrived in Bhopal and tested positive, Aditya cremated him wearing a PPE suit. After the last rites, he called his mother in Delhi. “My mother and sister were just returning after their own tests. I told my mother about father’s death. She had a severe asthma attack right there and collapsed. That was my biggest mistake,” says Aditya, breaking into sobs.
His 15-year-old sister took their mother to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital to find a bed but to no avail. She finally managed to admit her in an isolation ward at Metro Hospital in Noida, said Aditya.
His mother tested negative for Covid-19, but is on oxygen support. His sister, however, tested positive and is quarantined at home.