Delhi: No oxygen or hospital, only apathy for lawyer

NEW DELHI: After having lost his uncle and aunt to Covid-19 in Kolkata a fortnight ago, a 36-year-old Supreme Court advocate’s worst nightmare came true when he himself tested positive around a week ago. With high fever and a diminishing oxygen level, he waited for someone in the government to get in touch with him. None did. And worse, the day his result came, his entrepreneur wife and two children too began showing symptoms of infection.
Surjendu Sankar Das, who lives in south Delhi’s Alaknanda, told TOI about his family’s ordeal. All four of them had followed the lockdown norms and stayed indoors, only going out to buy essentials. “We took all precautions whenever we stepped out of the house,” claimed Das. “But our fear worsened when I developed symptoms of corona infection. I went to get myself tested at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, and since my condition was worsening with breathing becoming difficult, I asked the hospital to admit me. But they claimed they did not have a vacant bed.”
A few days after Das’ refusal by the hospital, TOI conducted a reality check on Monday to have the Apollo admission section respondent saying that since the discharge rate of Covid patients was high, beds were available again. On Wednesday at 6.17pm, the hospital had 188 vacant beds as per the Delhi Corona mobile app.
Das, however, had to return home dejected. When his breathing difficulty became aggravated, the family searched for an oxygen cylinder on rent, but couldn’t find any. “We also tried contacting the government officials, but in vain. Nothing was working out for us,” the lawyer said.
While his fever showed no sign of disappearing, his wife, Rachna Pathak, and the children too exhibited Covid symptoms. “My wife and I frantically made calls to the hospitals for tests and oxygen cylinders, to no avail,” narrated Das. “Delhi government claims that someone gets in touch with every person who tests positive and advises them on how to manage the infection. In our case, nothing happened. Our house wasn’t disinfected either.”
Their one-year-old daughter too became feverish. “The kids are totally isolated and so are we. We see them from our room, but can’t touch them,” Das said. “They, of course, miss their mother more than me. They cry and want to come to us, but we are unable to hug them. Our help can’t cook, so the children are surviving on Maggi.”
On Tuesday morning, Das called an ambulance to go to the hospital, but faced disappointment once again. With the situation deteriorating for the family, the lawyer, though suffering high fever, took the tough decision to drive to Max Hospital in Saket himself. The bad only got worse — he claimed he was instructed to return home.
“We had heard of home tests, so we tried getting someone to come and test us at home, everyone refused. It was only on Wednesday afternoon that a private lab agreed to come to take test samples from my wife,” Das said. Rachna's results are due on Thursday.
He said that he was contacted by a Delhi government official on Wednesday, who assured a team would come and disinfect this house on Thursday. Das added that on Wednesday, a police inspector too arrived. “He called me downstairs, saying he wouldn’t step into our house. I kept pleading with him for an oxygen cylinder, but he said that there were none while indicating that ‘having contacts’ could help,” maintained Das. The situation was somewhat saved by a friend finally managing to arrange a portable oxygen concentrator for the lawyer. But that, of course, does not bring the horror story to an end yet.