The 27-hour routine of a young doctor in India ravaged by the Coronavirus

Just before 3 PM, Aggarwal returns to the emergency room. He sits behind a table while relatives gather around him, begging his patients to be admitted.

“If a patient has a fever and I know he’s sick, but he doesn’t need oxygen, I can’t admit it,” he says.

This is the standard. People are dying in the streets without oxygen. So, people who don’t need oxygen, even if they’re sick, we’re not going to get it.
Rohan Agarwal, a physician in the capital of India

“Another criterion is to have an old and a young person. They both need a great flow of oxygen and I only have one bed in the ICU. I can’t let myself drift away from emotions at that time, because he’s someone’s father. The guy is the one who needs it.” Salvation. “

During the tour, he barely pays attention to the seated patients and is conscious.

Karuna Vadera, 74, is in critical condition. Aggarwal taps the woman’s shoulder and gently places his thumb into her eye socket to test resistance.

There is no. His head falls forward, as the oxygen levels drop dangerously low.

“She could die at any moment,” he told her nephew Polkett, pleading with him to take her to the hospital with the ICU bed.

“We have five relatives trying in different areas of New Delhi,” says Bulkett, almost constantly in his ear. “Nobody finds a bed.”