Sujata Hingorani and Supriya Das’s parents were partially vaccinated but died of covid-19 nine days apart.
The two sisters desperately tried to save their parents’ lives. But in India, many hospitals are full; crematoriums and graveyards are backlogged. wapo.st/3uKFE0Z
On April 16, Sujata found her father, Malay Kumar Chatterjee, a hospital bed after visiting seven different locations across New Delhi.
On April 18, another patient picked up the phone to tell her he had died hours earlier, “and no doctors were there to check.”
On April 19, Sujata cremated her father, without any other family there, during a cursory service at dark.
She barely had time to mourn. Her mother’s oxygen levels were dropping.
wapo.st/3uKFE0Z
Sujata’s mother, Indira, tested positive for the virus, and a chest scan indicated she had mild pneumonia. A doctor prescribed remdesivir.
Sujata's relatives helped secure vials, but there was no one available to administer the medication.
On April 25, the family next tried to get Indira a transfusion of plasma from a survivor of covid-19.
For two days they sent pleas for help on WhatsApp.
On April 27, they picked up the plasma and rushed to Indira. It was too late.
“I could only helplessly watch, while she fought on … on her own,” Sujata later wrote of her mother on Facebook.
“We had so much to do together,” Supriya wrote, remembering her mom on her daughter’s seventh birthday.
📸: (Rebecca Conway for The Post)
The ordeal — documented in videos and texts by Sujata — has become horrifyingly ordinary in India.
Finding adequate care for covid-19 patients in New Delhi, a city of 21 million, became nearly impossible.
wapo.st/3uKFE0Z
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.