Thread by @KanchanGupta

My father passed away this morning. He was #COVID positive.

नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः। न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः॥
ॐ शान्ति।। 🙏

His last days were on a hospital bed, on oxygen.
He spent his working life setting up oxygen units at hospitals. His work at PGIMR Chandigarh in mid-1960s drew attention of Tatas. He shifted to Jamshedpur where he set up O2 unit at TMH and other hospitals. It was his passion.

My father was rarely home. My early memories of him were of endless tours of outstation hospitals to install, check, repair O2 lines. He and his labour gang would rush out at odd hours to attend to leaks and blocks. The phone at home would usually receive urgent calls from TMH.

Those were low technology days. Something like a pressure gauge had to be sourced from a particular shop in Calcutta which imported them. He would go personally to check and buy.
In a sense, his life came full circle as he breathed his last hooked to an O2 pipe.

I will never get to meet the ambulance driver who shifted him to hospital, after putting him on O2, with care. My gratitude to him.
And my gratitude to the doctors, nurses and staff who tried their best, eased his pain, and remained by his side till the end.

My brother and I decided not to use the ventilator that was offered with no hope of survival. That machine would have been needlessly blocked. Better a #COVID19 patient with higher chances should get it. Baba would have wanted it that way. My late mother would have approved.

We have decided not to burden the harried folks at the local cremation ground by insisting on last rites etc, and adding to the crowds there. The municipal authorities will be booking a slot at the electric crematorium and do the needful with full #COVID protocol, likely tonight.

My sincere thanks to all who reached out. You have been a huge support. We bade farewell to my father when his body was taken from hospital for cremation. He was cremated at the local electric crematorium at midnight. The kind crematorium staff have sent us the cert on WA.
🙏🙏🙏