Dr. Maansi Sarin lost both her mother-in-law and father-in-law within a span of 25 days. She urges people to take even minor symptoms very carefully to avoid complications
I used to live in a happy home bustling with energy and life with my husband, in-laws and six year old kid. There was never a dull moment in our home, daily chit chats, office work, and household chores kept all of us very busy. The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic which struck in April 2021 changed our lives forever. Like every person in Delhi, we were scared of the situation around us and were taking all precautions to protect us diligently. My in-laws were homebound, my son was having online classes and we both were working from home.
One day, my father-in-law developed a mild fever with chills and a sore throat after meeting his friend for a casual chat for a few minutes in our society. He was confident of not contracting coronavirus because he never went ‘out’ and took all necessary precautions such as wearing a mask, washing hands regularly etc. He had taken his first dose of vaccination in March 2021. The fever subsided after taking paracetamol and he felt fine. After two days, as fever was still there, we insisted on getting his COVID-19 RT-PCR test. It took two days to get the result which was positive, contrary to his expectations. We isolated him and started him on medications. On the fourth day, me and my husband started experiencing the symptoms and isolated ourselves from our son and mother-in-law, who was a cancer patient. However, the deadly truth was staring at us. We all were COVID-19 positive. We took online consultations and started the medications immediately.
At the same time, my father-in-law’s oxygen saturation levels started dropping rapidly, scaring all of us to hell. We started running from pillar to post, making incessant calls to friends and relatives, desperate to get a bed in any hospital for him. We visited at least 20 hospitals only to hear “NO” as an answer. The apathy of human nature was unbearable when people at hospital receptions said “he is old, 70 above, we have no bed.” We started another quest for oxygen cylinders for him as his breathing became very difficult. His health was getting worse at home and he needed immediate hospitalisation.
An unknown factory owner helped us with half a cylinder. Another relative arranged for the second cylinder after queuing up for 7 hours. His condition was further deteriorating. Finally, after the desperate pleading of my husband at an army hospital in Delhi, he was admitted only to be put on an oxygen concentrator. The rest of us were having high fever, cough and severe body aches. He survived for a day and we got that deadly call the next night. The lack of basic health infrastructure, hospital beds, and most importantly scarcity of oxygen took him away from us.
This was only an initiation of the ordeal that was waiting for the rest of us. My husband performed the last rites as per COVID-19 protocol with only two of his relatives. The very next morning, my mother in law’s oxygen saturation dropped below 75. The quest for the hospital bed started again and finally, we managed to arrange for a bed in a Noida hospital with some help. The relief was nowhere in sight as on the same evening, my husband’s pulse oximeter reading was 88. The exhaustion of finding hospitals, arranging medicines and performing last rites took a toll on him. I took him to the same hospital in Noida alongside my six year old son. My next worry was who will keep a COVID-19 positive child if anything happens to us? Even if the people wanted to help, they were helpless; such is the irony of this disease.
The next 11 days in the hospital managing both of them, monitoring oxygen levels, arranging medicines at exorbitant rates, and staring at oxygen pressure in the hospital line, were the toughest days of my life. A cousin sister of my husband took the responsibility of my child, for which I will forever remain indebted to her. My brother and my husband’s cousin stood by me during the testing times. Finally, my husband was discharged with severe weakness, fatigue, and fluctuating oxygen levels, only to be on bed rest for the next 4-6 weeks. I am grateful to the Almighty for saving him from this deadly virus. My own recovery from Covid-19 is still a miracle.
However, all the efforts were in vain for my mother-in-law. She was not able to survive despite all the medications, oxygen pressure and ventilator. She fought hard to survive, bearing all the pain and showing amazing determination to get better. After losing my father-in-law, I didn’t have courage to go through the cremation of my mother-in-law. We felt so lonely and were still in shock from what has happened in our family in the last few weeks.
We lost both the parents in a span of 25 days. We are still trying to cope with our loss. Our lives are changed forever and the house feels quite empty without our parents, they were our support system. The horror memories of that time still gives us chills down the spine. This tragedy has taught us the best and worst lessons of life. We all must take even minor symptoms seriously to prevent future complications. Health insurance policies mean nothing, if we are living in a place with poor health infrastructure and lack of government support.
For every single day we are alive, we should be thankful to God.
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