Coronavirus lockdown: Lucknow health staff perform last rites of elderly woman as kin couldn't make it

Shailvee Sharda | TNN | Apr 15, 2020, 23:35 IST

The 87-year-old woman breathed her last on Wednesday morning

LUCKNOW: Lending a helping hand to a hapless brother sitting miles away in Cambridge, a city-based doctor and his team performed the last rites of his 87-year-old sister on Wednesday.
Usha Pandey, the patient, had suffered brain stroke and was undergoing treatment at Aastha Geriatric Hospital and Hospice for the past one week. A resident of Aliganj, who lived alone and was being cared at the hospice, breathed her last on Wednesday morning. Usha was also under the care of the hospital as an OPD patient for the past six years.
Medical director Dr Abhishek Shukla informed the aggrieved brother of the deceased who urged the hospital to arrange for the funeral of his sister.
“I am settled in Cambridge (UK). In times of lockdown, I obviously cannot come. Could you please arrange for the funeral of my sister,” Hriday, the brother of the deceased, wrote to Dr Shukla.
Sharing more, coordinator Namita Sinha said: “he also spoke to us over the phone and apprised that on account of the lockdown, his relatives in India will not be able to make it. In a very emotional conversation, he asked us to become the patient’s next of kin and conduct the ritualistic funeral on his behalf. Sharing his pain, four people in my team agreed.”
Thereafter, the patient was cremated her at the Bhaisakund electric crematorium and staff Rakesh Kumar performed the rituals.
“As requested by the brother, arrangements have been made to collect her ashes in a safe place so that the ashes may be immersed when normalcy restores,” said Ragini Singh who coordinated the funeral.
Waiting at the crematorium, Dr Abhishek Shukla stated that the coronavirus crisis was establishing the supremacy of nature over everything else with each passing day.
“I feel that the divine power is the ultimate decision maker and it is his/her will that prevails. We are not related to her in any way but we were picked up to perform her final rites, something that only very close family does,” he said.
Several snaps of the funeral procession and last rites were sent to lend some solace to the brother.