Kuldeep Sood in his daughter’s PG room in Sector 11, Panchkula. Express

WITH JUST 27 per cent lungs functioning and dependent on oxygen machine that fuels oxygen in his body every day, this 63-year-old man has been left stranded in Sector 11, Panchkula.

Kuldeep Sood, who hails from Jubbal in Himachal Pradesh, came here with his wife to attend his daughter’s engagement in March and as the lockdown was imposed, he got stranded in this one room where his daughter Rashi stays as a paying guest. Since then, the family has been trying to get help as ambulance that they called allegedly refused to move him anywhere in the current scenario.

To make it worse for the family, their daughter Rashi was sent on temporary leave by the company and there is no end to their struggles.

“I don’t know what to do…We three people are packed in this one room. Because my father’s lungs are working only 27% and he is dependent upon the oxygen machine, the problem we are facing is that the oxygen concentrator gets heated up with the rise in temperature and our room gets suffocated. So during night, he keeps sitting on the small verandah attached to my room so that he is able to survive,” Raashi said.

Sood is also a diabetic and has problem of thickness in blood as the hemoglobin is 22g which further creates problems in breathing, the daughter said.

“We called up at 100 number and we were asked to get in touch with ambulance. The ambulance people said that they cannot move him anywhere in the current scenario,” the daughter said. “What do we do now?”

Explaining how the situation turns grim at night, she said, “As the room gets heated up due to the machine, it creates further suffocation for all of us too. So after taking meal, Dad just sits on the verandah to spend his nights. He has been doing it this way for the last seven days now.”

Sood’s wife Renu has arthritis problem.

Due to the lockdown, Raashi was laid off by her company temporarily. “At the moment I am still able to manage with my savings but it would be difficult in the long run. We just appeal to the administration to listen to us. We are really helpless at this time,” she said.

Kuldeep said, “I am just worried. I won’t be able to survive this way. I request authorities to please listen to my appeal.”