My COVID story: "The doctors told my family I had 20% chances of survival"

Piyush Aggarwal's COVID battle started when both of his kids developed a high fever. No sooner, he and his wife, along with his brother developed symptoms, however, his condition was the most severe. From struggling with false-negative reports, struggling to find a hospital bed, and having to arrange medicines in the black market, Piyush spent over a month recovering in the hospital and still reeling from breathing difficulties. Here's his heart-wrenching COVID story.



Me and my family's COVID battle has been one of the toughest turmoils we have been through till now.

It all started when both my kids (7 years and 2 years old) developed a high fever (102 F) and diarrhoea on 12th April 2021. We contacted the doctor, started the medications, and had an RT-PCR test done the next day. We all tested negative and got a sense of relief. But the condition of our kids started to deteriorate further. Their fever wasn’t coming down and diarrhoea was not in control. The doctor warned us that these are COVID symptoms only. Our test was negative as we had gone for testing on the second day of the start of the symptoms. At that time, Delhi was already under the severe corona cloud as 20 K cases were coming every day and then immediately, we isolated ourselves on the first floor of our house. On the third day, my wife got a fever (102F). This added to our worry now. Along with it, my brother got severe diarrhoea and fever. Their medications started and the doctor told that they were all no doubt COVID symptoms.


While we were all isolated as a family, the kids started to get better. Both the kids recovered from fever in 5 days. However, those 5 days were very difficult especially seeing your 2-year-old toddler suffering not knowing that the worse is about to start.


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Soon after the kids recovered, I was the one who developed a high fever (104 F from 20th April onwards) and my oxygen saturation levels started fluctuating between 90 to 94. I had an online consultation and was advised to go for a CT scan, the report came the next day, and it showed zero infection. Now as my earlier report was negative and CT Scan was fine, the doctor advised me to go for Malaria, Dengue, and Typhoid tests as my fever weren’t coming down from 104 F. My family spent sleepless nights giving me cold water strips to reduce the fever. And again, my all reports came fine. After 4 days, I consulted another doctor who told me to go for the Corona test and this time it was COVID POSITIVE.

Now it caused a worry not knowing what to do? Get admitted to the hospital or get treatment at home. At that time (last week of April 2021) all Delhi hospitals were full and there was a severe shortage of oxygen cylinders. We arranged cylinders through some contact at high prices and the doctor started the ICU treatment at home. By this time the oxygen level dipped to 90 and I was given 2 Remdevisir injections (which was another battle to procure). On around the 6th day, I started to struggle to breathe and my oxygen levels dipped further to 85-88 and by this time, I was on an oxygen cylinder 24 hours. Doctors already warned us that now we should start looking for a hospital bed as my situation will further deteriorate and it would not be possible to do home treatment. On the morning of 28th April, I slipped in the washroom around 6 AM and could not get up. At that point, my oxygen levels dipped to 70.

My family was struggling to get me a hospital bed since morning making numerous phone calls to each hospital and trying to figure out contacts in their reach. Finally, we succeeded in getting an ICU bed in Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon. Now another struggle was to get an ambulance to reach the hospital (42 km from my place) which took another 3 hours. And then while shifting from my room to the ambulance, the cylinder flow meter broke down and there was no cylinder in the ambulance. My oxygen levels further dropped to less than 50. We had to rush to a nearby Hospital (around 2 km.) in the emergency ward. I was put on an oxygen cylinder, but my saturation was not coming to the normal levels. Finally, doctors informed my family that he needs to be shifted to ICU immediately else the situation will be out of control. They did not have ICU beds available means we had to go to Artemis Hospital only. Again, we struggled for an ambulance and finally reached the hospital. I was straight away shifted to the ICU at 11 PM.
I was immediately put on an NIV oxygen. Doctors informed my family that the next 2 days are extremely critical and if there’s no improvement, then I would have to be put on a ventilator. It was a terrifying situation. Doctors told my family to arrange for a lifesaving injection of Tocilizumab immediately as it was not available in the hospital. It was arranged in black and then the situation started to improve. After 5 days I was put on a High flow Oxygen mask and the NIV was removed. (NIV experience is extremely painful as your face is completely covered and compressed as if some 5 Kg stone is put on your face).


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I remained in the hospital for the next 39 days (24 days in ICU and 15 days in Normal Ward). Once in the hospital, the difficult part was to not follow the news, Google any information regarding COVID treatment, trust doctor’s medicament and most importantly avoid receiving calls or replying to messages from people who tend to give unsolicited advice. All this made my battle against the virus a bit tolerable. Something worth mentioning here was the positive and cheerful attitude of the doctors and the hospital staff which was a big bonus. During the initial days, every moment was a struggle to live and I would be seeing so many deaths around me (almost 4-5 everyday and majority were in the same age group as mine) and the doctor would keep motivating and telling me that it is just a matter of 2-3 days when I would be discharged. I was completely unaware of what was happening in the background where the doctor told my family that my survival chance was only 20 %. My whole family started all sorts of puja for me, they started staying in the Hotel opposite the Hospital for emergencies. The most daunting part that I endured during this stay; would be the blood tests which were done daily at 5 AM. They’d become a thorough nightmare. After a lot of pricking, prodding, squeezing my limbs a vial or half would fill up and it was never enough. So, the nurse had to revisit after a few hours to collect the adequate amount of blood sample and I’d to go through the same ordeal all over again. I survived that and the onslaught of antibiotics, steroids administered during and after being discharged from the hospital. Those days were very tough, but I fought day and night hoping that one day it will be over and will come out of the hospital. I was completely shattered both Physically and mentally. I should be grateful I didn’t encounter any major complications in spite of being in the high-risk category owing to my high BP and being overweight. Once I shifted to a normal ward after 24 days, I could see my family and there was a sigh of relief that the doctor finally told me that I am now out of danger. I got discharged on 6th June but was still requiring an oxygen cylinder to breathe.

Even though it's more than a month now from the date of discharge, I still feel the post-Covid effects of being tired, less agile, pain in the legs (after walking 200-300 steps) and in the chest. With my family's support, I will soon overcome this as well and emerge stronger from this episode.



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