COVID-19: Brother-sister duo convert car into ‘Covid ward’ for mother after they fail to find bed in hospitals

India is currently dealing with a devastating second Covid-19 wave that has swept through the nation, crushing the country's health infrastructure and overburdening frontline medical workers. The number of coronavirus cases in the country is increasing day by day.

On the one hand, the health system and citizens are grappling with a number of crisis, such as lack of oxygen, lack of beds, and shortage of medicines such as Remedesivir. Similarly, a brother-sister duo from Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh have made tremedous efforts to save their mother from coronavirus. Since the mother was not getting a bed in the hospital, they have successfully treated her byconverting their car into corona ward.

Their mother needed dialysis. The two siblings started treatment on their mother in the car by placing an oxygen cylinder on the roof of the car. They both sat in the front seat and made a bed for the mother in the back seat.

Finally, on the fifth day, the mother was admitted to the hospital. Over the next five days, her condition improved. The family took her home thereafter, but the siblings spent 10 days in their vehicle in the hospital’s parking lot. During which period, one of them also contracted infection.

On April 20, Payal, (25), and her 23-year-old brother Akash had brought their mother  (Parul) from Lakhimpur Kheri to Lucknow for dialysis. They were expected to return home in the evening after his mother underwent dialysis.

However, on the same day, their mother developed fever and the hospital where they used to take her for dialysis regularly asked for an RT-PCR Covid test report.The next day their mothers test report came positive.

It was not appropriate to stay with a relative or in a hotel in Lucknow. The duo sibling ate from local food joint and parked their car in the hospital parking lot and slept there that night. As the regular hospital refused to conduct dialysis, the siblings with the help of friends, found a private hospital that agreed to perform the procedure but cancelled it later when Parul’s oxygen level started dropping.

The siblings made their mother lie in prone position on the backseat and spent another night in the car, simultaneously searching for oxygen cylinder. Help came on April 23 when the father brought a cylinder from Lakhimpur in a hired car. On April 24, their mother got a bed in RMLIMS. After her condition stabilised, she was discharged on April 30.