Five personal stories of the COVID-19 crisis in Delhi
A second wave of COVID-19 infections has taken India by storm, with a four-fold increase in daily new cases and deaths from the first wave. As the country came to a grinding halt, the national capital, Delhi, has been among the worst hit. Hospitals, testing laboratories, crematoriums and local governments reeled under the explosion in cases and fatalities.
Behind these numbers are people, their children and families who were affected by the virus. This week, we bring you personal stories from our staff – fact-checkers, journalists and researchers who have been reporting on COVID-19 since the outbreak, and found themselves fighting against the virus in India’s second wave.
These are stories of hardships and challenges, but also of acceptance, hope and fortitude that cast light on the faces behind India’s cases.
Scrambling for supplies
By Pankhuri Agarwal
I woke up one Tuesday to messages requesting leads for oxygen cylinders, ICU beds, Remdesivir injections and plasma donors. Honestly, I had half a mind to go back to sleep and never open my social media again.
My morning routine soon shifted from freshening up and enjoying a cup of coffee to opening WhatsApp and looking for online resources, and making calls pleading for essential supplies that were going to mean life or death for someone. This was Delhi’s second wave.
This Tuesday, I was looking for an oxygen cylinder for a colleague’s relative. I came across a post claiming availability of cylinders. I rang up the number, and on the other side was a teenager, not more than 15 or 16 years of age. He didn’t have any resources but offered to help, probably because I sounded panicked. I texted him on WhatsApp and that began our journey of scrambling for supplies. He’d send me some numbers. I would make calls, hoping with every ring that someone would answer it. Most didn’t, but some did, and I quickly forwarded them along to my colleague. Read more…
What if?
A story of personal loss and grief – what if things had gone differently?
By Varadarajan Ananthakrishnan
For almost his entire life, my elder brother hated hospitals, injections and medicines. Even when our mother administered insulin for herself, he would flee the room, as he could not stand the sight of the needle. So, it wasn’t unusual that he kept postponing his vaccination. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, except for two months, he regularly went to work – maintained all protocols, and stayed safe for most part.
On family calls, he would joke about how he does not need the vaccine, as he has stayed safe all along. We couldn’t agree more. On 18 April, he came down with a bit of a sore throat and fever. “Please don’t panic” -he announced on the family group.
He looked alright for a week, but his cough was bothersome. The doctors advised him to go for a CT scan, but he kept postponing it- saying he would be fine. Three days later, reluctantly, he did go for the scan. The reports were not reassuring. Read more…
“We called ourselves the COVID Fighters, and never missed a session”
By Surbhi Pandit Nangia, interviewed by Anuja Venkatachalam
Surbhi and her husband tested positive for COVID-19 in early May. A nuclear family of four, extended by her in-laws who live in the same house, and her parents, Surbhi’s biggest anxiety was of infecting her family. Fortunately for her, it was only she and her husband who had tested positive. They decided to isolate themselves in their room, strictly keeping away from their children and extended family during the 14-day period.
“I was largely asymptomatic when I tested positive, whereas my husband was symptomatic but had tested negative. The doctor classified his case as a false negative, and advised him to get re-tested. My husband tested positive three days later, but we had already begun our treatment.”, Surbhi explained.
Surbhi had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder five years back, and was on immunosuppressants and steroids for a prolonged period. Autoimmune diseases overbuild the immune system to an extent where the body begins destroying its own cells. Read more…
The week that shouldn’t have been
Every member of a family across four different cities tested positive the same week, including an 80-year-old grandmother, a five-year-old and a four-year-old. A story of their recovery.
By Tariq Hashmat
Sometime in the third week of February, our editorial team was working on the looming COVID numbers in India. It didn’t look good. The second wave was becoming a reality. Merely weeks since that anticipatory piece on the second wave, almost every household in the country was afflicted by a ravaging second wave. And so was mine.
As a data journalist, looking at the myriad of COVID numbers has been my game. And with doctors, including critical care specialists, within my family, I have been surrounded by all possible knowledge of the virus. This time, however, the virus itself had major infiltration plans. And it started with a slight, almost inconspicuous, itch in the throat which lingered on for a few days.
A precautionary test should clear things up, I thought. 36 hours later, in the early hours of the morning, a sudden fatigue set in just as I was wrapping up my fourth pre-fast meal of Ramadan. A phone call with my sister and I came to know that everyone at her house was down with fever, including my 80-year old grandma and my four-year-old niece. A few hours later, my thermometer read 101. By the end of the day, everyone in my house too had soaring temperatures. The ‘precautionary’ test, by now, just became a confirmation of fears. I took a headcount and yes, all of my family, everywhere, was positive. Read more…
A long-drawn war with small battles to fight everyday
How COVID got to a family of five, and their individual fight to recovery
By Misthy Sablok
We are a family of five, and have been extremely paranoid about COVID since the outbreak. My father was already being treated for multiple critical illnesses, and we feared that adding COVID to his list would make things unbearable. We went out of our way to adhere to all the COVID-19 measures, and survived the first wave.
Then came the second wave, and we had our guards up once again! Luckily, I had managed to get my parents vaccinated with their first jab just in time. When the cases went up, we locked ourselves up, and diligently sanitized all our groceries, used disinfectants for washing and cleaning, and did not allow any outsiders into the house, including our househelp. Despite all this, the virus managed to enter the house.
My brother was the first to show symptoms. He had started complaining about a severe headache and by evening the same day, he had a mild temperature. We immediately isolated him and arranged for all of us to get tested. My brother and my mother tested positive, and in no time we made all the arrangements for their treatment and isolation which included separating the living area, washrooms, and meals. Read more…
The post India’s second wave: The faces behind the cases appeared first on Health Analytics Asia.
