Mumbai A 58-year-old woman was forced to stay and sleep on the footpath outside Nair hospital as she had no other option available. The woman had come to Mumbai along with her husband and son from Igatpuri for getting cancer treatment for her husband.
But the man died and son was also admitted after testing positive for coronavirus and now she has only option to wait for her 18-yearold son to get discharged. Her husband was admitted to the King Memorial Hospital (KEM) hospital.
Her husband tested positive for Covid-19 and son being in close contact with him also contracted the virus. After the test results, the father-son duo was shifted to BYL Nair hospital for corona related treatment.
While treatment was being done, father died as he was suffering from cancer too. The woman's son was admitted in the corona ward. Being alone, the woman with the help of police cremated her husband at Worli cemetery.
After the incident, she contacted the village and told them that she is coming back but the villagers told her that she cannot come to the village unless she gets herself tested for the virus. The woman requested the senior doctors of the hospital at Nair Hospital that even she has to be checked for corona to ascertain whether she was also affected with the disease.
"I stood in the queue for the test for more than two hours but when my chance came, the doctor refused to collect the swab sample saying that there was no corona symptoms seen in me and so he couldn't check me for coronavirus", the old woman said. She left, but she wondered where she was going.
She called a relative who lives in Mumbai but she couldn’t go there as her relative said that their housing society would not allow any outsider at this point of time. After losing all hopes in this unfamiliar city, she finally found refuge on the footpath outside Nair hospital. For the past two days, she has been spending time on the sidewalk.
She eats whatever she gets there. Now the woman has only one hope of returning to her village but that too was possible only if she gets tested. With tears, she said, "I would probably be tested only after I get infected and that I would be released from this hell like life".
