Story of two mothers with different footnotes
Shimla: It's a story of two mothers -one who lost her 21-year-old son to novel Coronavirus in front of her eyes and another who has chosen to expose herself to the deadly disease to see her two-year-old daughter, recovering from infection.
The two-year-old girl was tested positive, an infection she acquired from her father -a truck driver in Chamba district on Friday. The mother has now taken upon herself to be with baby girl, braving the virus that has made innocent child its victim.
While father, who had a travel history of Baddi-Industrial belt in Himachal Pradesh and earlier his trip to Jaipur along with another person has been kept at separate place, mother and daughter have been isolated at Chamba to keep them under close observation and constant medical care.
Dr Rajesh Guleri, Chief Medical Officer Chamba, said, "there was no option but to ask her mother to stay with the girl child at government Ayurvedic hospital, Chamba. She is too small and could not have been isolated from the mother. We have given them a separate room. Mother has been informed about dos' and don'ts' to be followed during the care. There is no problem as of now."
As par CMO Chamba, the medical teams, who are at duty, are taking full care of the child's health. "Her temperature is being monitored periodically. All necessary items have also been provided to mother and child," he said.
Only aspect of some worries to the medical teams relates to some heart ailment to which the girl was suffering from her childhood. But, any case, the baby girl is playful and otherwise fine with her condition, said Dr Guleri.
The second case relates to Mandi. This mother, who had travelled with her son -a Corona positive case from Lal Bahadur Shastri Medical College, Ner Chowk, to IGMC Shimla, was tested positive immediately after her son's death. Though suffering from kidney disease, right from his birth, the youth had returned home from Delhi last week as he had remained stranded there after the lockdown while getting treatment at AIIMS.
His father was in Delhi when the youth developed complications and was admitted at Ner Chowk hospital in Mandi from where he was rushed to IGMC Shimla.
Mother and youth's uncle had travelled with him to IGMC Shimla in the ambulance.
"His father, who was in Delhi, had taken full care to see that he doesn't contract any infection of Coronavirus but unfortunately his health deteriorated," the mother recalls.
The worst part of his demise, and misfortune, she says, was that cremation of her son was held in Shimla where none of the family members could attend.
In fact, cremation of the youth during mid-night had already sparked off controversy.
A woman officer -Sub-Divisional Magistrate Shimla (Urban), Neeraj Chandla, stood on her ground following protocol in the cremation of COVID victim's body as she remained present to oversee arrangements.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday made it clear that all people returning from other states will not be sent to homes but institutional quarantine centres.
This step has been taken in view of the fact that at least nine, of total 15 new cases, tested positive, are persons with travel history of different places including Delhi. "It is unfortunate that some people are not following quarantine norms. Their family members are getting infected. We have to enforce the quarantine norms very strictly and also invoke legal action," he warned.
Chief Minister said that as many as 52,763 people of the state stranded in different parts of the country have applied for the COVID e-Pass. Similarly, about 63,044 people from different states of the country stranded in Himachal Pradesh want to leave the state for their native places.
Till date as many as 30,219 people of other states have already left.
"Now the Union government has agreed to run a special train from Thivim/Margao/Karamali (Goa) to Una to facilitate movement of the people of Himachal Pradesh stranded in Goa. A special train would start from Goa on May 13 and 14 to carry the Himachalis back home," the CM said.
He said that another special train would start from Bengaluru on May 11 to Una to facilitate movement of the people of Himachal Pradesh stranded in Bengaluru. He said that the state government was also contemplating to urge the Union Government to start similar trains from Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar etc to facilitate the people of Himachal Pradesh stranded there.
