A bed, a bed, a kingdom for a bed
The Hindu
Let at least this pandemic challenge the islands of privilege that we protect so well
I have been acquainted with asthma since the age of four, and the thought of not being able to breathe has a very real power to frighten me. So, when the second wave came and brought with it a raging oxygen shortage, I had a minor ‘what-if’ moment. It made me call a friend with connections to doctors to ask if it made sense to keep an oxygen cylinder at home as a precaution. Her sources said there was no shortage yet in Chennai, which sounded reassuring, and I killed the thought. It’s significant that I had wanted, momentarily, to ‘hoard’ an oxygen cylinder when I had resisted through the past year the idea of hoarding anything, whether masks, sanitisers, groceries or medicines. Clearly, a tiny window of fear had opened fleetingly, a window that many among us don’t shut, or don’t know how to, or don’t see why it should be shut. The episode led me to think about the concept of medical triage, and how ignorant we are about it, despite its life-saving potential. The dictionary defines it as “the assignment of degrees of urgency to illnesses to decide the order of treatment, when both patients and casualties are large”. A pandemic is exactly when triage should kick in. Unfortunately, that’s exactly when we throw it to the winds and enter into a sort of wild race to corner resources for ourselves and our families.More Related News