On Mothers' Day, family mourned loss of 'brave' doc, her unborn child

New Delhi: Sunday was Mother's Day, and it would have been a joyous occasion for the Chawlas had coronavirus not taken the lives of Dr Dimple Arora and her unborn child.

Instead the family spent the day remembering Dr Dimple, fondly called Dipika by her friends and family, and Ravish Chawla tweeted a video of his wife in which she cautioned people against the virus. While sharing it, Chawla wished her a 'Happy Mother's Day'.

In the video, she says, "Don't take corona lightly... Bad symptoms... I'm not able to speak. Please wear a mask when you interact with people for the safety of your near and dear ones. I really pray no one goes through this. I don't want anybody to have these symptoms. Please don't be irresponsible because there are elderly people, pregnant women, children at your home. I always want to work. I was so active but my body is giving up now." Arora had contracted the virus in her seventh month of pregnancy and succumbed to it on April 26, a day after losing her unborn child. The baby died in her womb following which the doctors had to conduct a surgery. "My three-and-a-half year old son has gone quiet. When his mother was hospitalised, he would see people praying to God and would say, 'God, please cure Mumma'. But now, whenever her name comes up, people break down. He has also stopped asking us when will she come back. It seems as if he knows. Sometimes, he still asks about her but is quiet most of the times when he sees our family picture," Chawla said.

Chawla said his heart breaks every time he hears his son ask for his mother but he can't tell him anything since he is too young to understand the enormity of the loss. Dimple was an MDS in Public Health Dentistry and took all possible precautions against the virus, Chawla said, adding that she would wear two or even three masks and sometimes even the PPE kit when she stepped out during her pregnancy. "She would always say, 'I don't want to contract the virus during my pregnancy'. We live in a joint family and one day we celebrated my cousin's birthday on our terrace.

"There she and other women of my family got infected and the very next day she and my son tested positive, while I tested negative. We immediately decided to quarantine ourselves and stay away from my dad," Chawla recalled.