April 26, 2021, will be unforgettable for Laxman Tiwari, a resident of Burari, Delhi, not because his parents died on that day while he was suffering from Covid-19 and his wife lay in the hospital who too has been infected with the disease.
The day will keep terrifying Laxman as he had to wait 20 hours to get his parents corpses to the crematorium in a dignified manner.
Laxman’s 4-year-old son saw his grandparents perish and their dead bodies decay in front of him, while his father’s plea with neighbours and strangers for help went in vain. Coronavirus had affected the entire family, leaving his wife in the hospital for more than 15 days and letting his parents suffer in critical condition.
Laxman had isolated himself with his son. On April 26 around 4 pm, his mother’s health started deteriorating when her system began to run out of oxygen. After an hour of desperately gasping and wheezing, palpitating and relentless pumping by the son, she lost her life. The horror had just begun for the family.
Tribulations of a desperate man
Just a few hours later, before Laxman could come to terms with the loss of his mother, his father was gasping for oxygen. Already in despair, he started pumping his father’s chest, but around 1 in the morning, his father lost the battle to the virus and breathed his last. Horrified from reality, Laxman and his son just stared at the dead bodies of their loved ones.
Collecting all his will after an hour, Laxman reached out to his neighbours for help but no one came forward to help the broken man fearing their lives. Maybe it was one of his neighbours that sent out a WhatsApp alert reaching the 35-year-old Irtiza Qureshi.
Empathy is alive
Irtiza, who is a Covid volunteer, rushed to help Laxman. He reached the Burari police station, 4 in the morning and begged for help to take the bodies to the cremation ground which is less than 4 km from Laxman’s house. They refused.
For the next 7 hours, Irtiza tried reaching out to hospitals, ambulance facilities, and even cremation ground authorities for help but no one arrived helping the shattered family.
Though, some who were willing to help came up with several conditions. One was that the bodies will be left outside the crematorium, two they would not help with the cremation and three that they will not carry the bodies to the ambulance and for all this, they demanded - Rs 25,000. The family was already struggling with finances and paying so much was not possible.
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Society’s indifference
Irtiza then contacted Farhan Yahya, a journalist who runs Hindustan Live, a news portal. Frahan immediately reached the DCP and SHO Burari but were not provided with any services despite promises. By that time, 17 hours had passed since Laxman’s mother died and with the increase in temperature, the smell from rotting flesh started becoming intense.
After 22 hours of misery and running in hopelessness, one ambulance Irtiza and Farhan had connected was ready to ferry Laxman’s parent’s bodies. And finally, after witnessing the inhumane response to the deaths, Laxman’s parents could get a respectful farewell.
Irtiza was told the bodies were in extremely bad shape when they were finally loaded into the ambulance.
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This story shows how strained humanity is when nobody has a sense of helping people in despair. The sight a 4-year-old had to witness of decaying grandparents dead bodies and a desperate father begging for help with strangers and neighbours for help is something no one in this world should be a spectator to.