[News] The India Covid patients whose lonely deaths went viral

[Mr.Talha]

 

In Delhi in April, six people died alone on a hospital ward, left there by doctors in the midst of the country's devastating second wave of Covid-19.

Video of the bodies left on the ward went viral, but the headlines soon moved on, leaving a void of information around what happened that night and a group of loved ones bound by tragedy.

In the footage, a man can be heard talking in the background as the camera phone pans around the room.

"Neither the doctor, nor the chemist is here. There is no-one at the reception," he says, as relatives go from bed to bed, trying to revive loved ones.

"How can doctors run away leaving patients for dead despite your presence?" a man is seen asking a police official.

"Dead," says a man in another video. "Dead. Everyone."

People walk past funeral pyres in New Delhi, India, April 2021
IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionIndia has the second-highest death toll in the world from the coronavirus
The video was shot on the night of 30 April at an intensive care unit in Kriti hospital in Gurugram, a Delhi suburb.

Relatives of the dead say they barged into the ICU after they were unable to find doctors in the hallways, only to find the ICU also deserted. They have accused the doctors of abandoning the patients after the hospital ran out of oxygen.

The doctors, who were hiding elsewhere in the hospital, say they fled fearing violence from the families. The families say they never made any threats.

One month on, an internal inquiry is yet to confirm the cause of the deaths. No charges have been filed. The Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg was unable to say when the investigation will be completed.

For the families, there is very little to go on.

'We want justice for our loved ones'
By April in India, the oxygen crunch was a nationwide concern, as the second wave of coronavirus was bringing India's healthcare system to its knees. Patients died on stretchers outside overwhelmed hospitals while crematoriums overflowed with the dead.

Patients died even as hospitals and families scrambled to arrange for oxygen supplies. Social media was awash with desperate pleas from doctors and relatives of sufferers alike.

The death of the six unattended patients was one of many tragedies, but the shocking nature of the video footage sent it careening around the world.

Kaustav Ritwik's grandmother Geeta Sinha
IMAGE COPYRIGHTKAUSTAV RITWIK
image captionGeeta Sinha was among those who died that night
Then, when the story slipped from the headlines, a sense of disillusionment crept into the lives of the loved ones left behind.

A WhatsApp group created in the aftermath of the tragedy, once buzzing with messages of hope and support, filled with frustration and despair.

"We want justice for our loved ones," Namo Jain, a 17-year-old who lost his father that night, wrote in the group recently.

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The group did not know each other before they were united by what happened, and they still only know one another via the WhatsApp group.

"We don't know each other by face, still we must be together to support one another," said Nirupama Verma, whose mother Gita Sinha was among those who died that night.