India COVID crisis: Tragic scenes in a hospital in Uttar Pradesh News from India

In an emergency room at a public hospital in northern India, a man is trying to resuscitate a mother who had just died of COVID-19 symptoms.

In the other bed, a young man who tested positive is sitting and making an effort to breathe while the two members of his exhausted family lie down on the small bed.

The only doctor in the ER medical condition at this hospital in Bijnor, India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, can barely walk 180 km (112 miles) east of Delhi in the stream of incoming patients, in rough ambulances or in the back of cars.

India’s second wild wave has reached its small towns and rural area, ripping off a fragile health system that is not equipped to deal with this major public health crisis.

Doctors are unlikely to arrive, intensive care units are expensive and scarce, and patients are admitted to emergency rooms.

People come in and out, trying to help from getting oxygen cylinders to artificial acceleration.

“We’re trying as hard as we can, the numbers are huge,” said Ramakant Pandey, Bijnor district chief. Unlike the first wave, this one is more serious, he said.

“Also, we don’t get a lot of time from the time a person becomes infected until they’re serious.”

Four people were killed at the Bijnor hospital within an hour on Tuesday, including 57-year-old Jagdish Singh, who arrived a few minutes earlier. Gajendra’s son said he took him to the hospital because he thought it would help raise his oxygen level.

At the hospital, he said he ran to get oxygen and then lost his father.

Dr. Naresh Johri, who was leading the ER along with the two assistants, said he was not in a position to speak to the press in accordance with the service rules.

Medical oxygen has become a major concern with major hospitals in Delhi and other major cities calling for SOS, as life-saving gas supplies were being depleted due to the oppression of patients.

The government is now trying to organize supplies from abroad and from local industry. Although the situation in Delhi has improved, smaller towns like Bijnor are struggling.

Many choose not to go to hospitals because they will not receive much care. In the village of Jhaalu, 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Bijnor, relatives of Shakeel Ahmed were reading the Quran while he was breathing.

“We are trying to avoid hospitals, we don’t trust the system,” said his brother Bhure Ahmed.