Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Jun 2: A 40-year-old Mohammed Saleem Khan used to earn his livelihood by running a shop of computer sales and service namely Shaimoon at Residency road Srinagar.
He used to lead a good life with a decent income as a computer engineer.
However, Saleem’s life suddenly took an ugly turn as in the second week of May this year, he wasn’t feeling well and had little symptoms of Covid-19.
His brother took him to Khyber hospital Srinagar, where a doctor told him that he is suffering with pneumonia and advised them to take him to any tertiary care hospital for admission.
His brother who is living separately said that he searched for a bed at CD hospital but no bed was vacant and later they visited SMHS where he got admitted on 11 May.
“He was fit and fine. He went to hospital on foot and for around eight days after 11 May every doctor was saying that he is recovering and there is no need to worry,” Saleem’s brother said.
However, on the 9th day, he was administered a Remedesivir injection after which his condition started deteriorating.
“Later we were asked to arrange some five more injections which cost around Rs 2.5 lakh. After 5 doses, his condition further deteriorated,” he said. “On 22 May, his condition deteriorated so much that he was kept on ICU bed but just in an hour he died and the whole family was devastated.”
Saleem has left behind a wife and an eight month old girl.
His brother said that he had to go through very tough times while arranging oxygen for him for the last four days.
“Authorities at the hospital were providing a cylinder but oxygen was getting exhausted within one to two hours,” he said. “The condition of our hospital infrastructure is not good and doctors aren’t also able to take care of patients well.”
Similar to the tragic story of Saleem, there are dozens of families who are facing economic crisis as they lost their lone bread earner of the family and those families are on the verge of living on the streets.
