Woman Loses COVID Stricken Mother Even After Kneeling And Begging For Oxygen

A resident of India’s capital, New Delhi became one of the thousands of people devastated by the loss of a coronavirus-infected relative. Shruti Saha’s desperate hunt for oxygen ended when she received the devastating news of the death of her mother.

After her mother’s health deteriorated due to the coronavirus, Saha was forced to search for oxygen. In India, with the second wave, there has been a shortage of vaccines, hospital beds and oxygen. Many like Saha have been forced to search their cities to get oxygen cylinders or to get empty cylinders filled. People have also been forced to buy oxygen cylinders at inflated prices.

Reuters reported that Saha had been going around New Delhi since 2:00 a.m. local time. Around 4:00 a.m. she reached the oxygen filling plant at an industrial estate. There was already a queue at the plant of people desperate to get oxygen for their ailing relatives.

Kneeling on the ground, Saha had begged the police and security at the plant to help her. She told them that her mother had been very ill. She claims that the family had not even been able to get the ailing woman admitted to a hospital due to a shortage of beds.

As she waited in the queue, Saha got the devastating call that her mother had passed away. She was seen crying inconsolably and was eventually led away by a young man who was accompanying her.

The video of a similar incident went viral after a man in a PPE kit was seen begging the police to not take away an oxygen cylinder. The incident reportedly took place on Tuesday, April 27 outside Upadhyay Hospital in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. The Wire identified the man as 22-year-old Anmol Goyal. In the video, the distressed man can be seen kneeling on the street begging officers to not take the oxygen cylinder. He told the police that his coronavirus-infected mother would die if they took away the oxygen.

Two hours after the video was taken, the man’s 53-year-old mother, identified as Usha, reportedly passed away.

After facing widespread criticism, the Agra city Superintendent of Police Rohan P. Botre, said that the police had not taken away a filled cylinder. He said that the man in the video was begging for the police to help him get a cylinder. The cylinder being taken away was empty and was not being used for the man’s mother. He said that the police had been helping citizens get filled cylinders so they were taking the empty one away for filling.

However, the Goyal family firmly claims that the police took away the oxygen cylinder that was to be used for their patient.