In the last twelve months, my octogenarian mother has lost at least 12 people she knows well. While, at her age, she is used to losing people, this toll is certainly greater than usual.
“Well, there is a pandemic raging”, we could say, but only one of them had tested positive for COVID, though COVID was indirectly responsible for all their deaths.
A lady in her mid 90s who hadn’t stepped outside her home since March, contracted COVID from her caregiver. After a week in the ICU, she passed away, and though all three of her children were in the same city, none of them was pay their respects to her before she was cremated.
She was the only one to officially have COVID mentioned as the cause of death.
But there were many others who succumbed to the pandemic.
A lady in her mid 80s had Parkinson’s. Both her children were settled abroad and would take turns to visit. Her son was supposed to come, when Lockdown was announced. Within a week she was gone.
Neither child got to hold her hand before she was cremated.
Ten days later, her husband had a cardiac arrest. The retirement home he was in called a doctor, but dithered about taking him to a hospital. He did not survive the second cardiac arrest which came a few hours later.
Was it a cardiac arrest or heartbreak, we will never know.
Another lady lived in a sprawling bungalow with a caregiver, a housekeeper and a driver. She developed bed sores, but her brother decided it wasn’t safe to take her to a hospital. It spread, and she died of gangrene.
Yet another indirect casualty.
Others were denied (or delayed) hospital care, in a bid to keep them “safe” from the Coronavirus.
Do we even acknowledge those deaths?
How many more indirect deaths will COVID claim?
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