Lucknow: With India in the throes of a devastating second Covid wave, citizens are running from pillar to post to procure hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and essential medicines for their loved ones infected by Covid. In a similar story of struggle, a brother-sister duo from Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri desperately searched for a hospital bed for their coronavirus-infected mother, but in vain. However, they didn’t give up, and came up with a solution! Also Read - Ra Ra Rasputin to Pro Pro.. Protein: Baba Sehgal's Hindi Version of 'Rasputin' Song Raising COVID-19 Awareness Goes Viral | Watch
Notably, Akash(23) and Payal Singh (25) drove their mother, a 45-year-old woman named Parul Singh, to Lucknow for her dialysis on April 20. They were supposed to return that very day, but their mother developed fever and the next morning, the RT-PCR test came out to be positive, Times of India reported. The family had to spend the night inside the car and in the parking lot of the hospital since there was no other option. More trouble awaited them the next morning as the hospital refused to perform the dialysis, and meanwhile, other private hospitals also refused her admission. When their mother’s oxygen levels dropped, the siblings had another daunting task in hand–to arrange an oxygen cylinder.
“To maintain her oxygen levels, we made mother lie in prone position on the backseat as we spent another night in the car, simultaneously searching for an oxygen cylinder. Help came on April 23 when my father brought a cylinder from Lakhimpur in a hired car. We put her on oxygen support in the car itself and sent our father home to protect him from the virus,” Payal told The Times of India.
All this while, the family stayed back in the car again, hoping for her condition to improve and Parul’s dialysis was done too when her oxygen levels improved.
Meanwhile, Akash had also tested positive for the virus and Payal arranged everything from medicines to food and finances. Finally, they got a hospital bed in Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences on April 24, after spending 4 days in their car. On April 30, she was officially discharged after defeating the virus.