A Year After Covid Hell: Grief And Anger At This Lucknow Home Where 8 Died In 24 Days

Among the members of the family who died were 2 sisters, their 4 brothers, their mother, and their paternal aunt.

The sprawling, 8 room house of the Yadav family in Imaliya Purva, a village on the outskirts of Lucknow, is empty - a stark, haunting, and devastating contrast from just a year ago when the second wave of the Covid pandemic killed eight members of the joint family within 24 days. One death and cremation - on an average - every three days.

Among the members of the family who died were 2 sisters, their 4 brothers, their mother, and paternal aunt - some of them gasping for oxygen at a private hospital, some at home.

Seema Singh Yadav's 45-year-old husband Nirankar Singh - a farmer - died on April 25 last year after spending six days in a hospital. 

"He was screaming and gasping for oxygen. He asked me to go to the doctor and arrange for more oxygen. I was begging the doctor to increase his oxygen flow. The doctor did it once but even then, my husband could not breathe. I asked the doctor to increase it further and he said I won't even get this much. My husband overheard this and asked me why the doctor was saying this. I had to lie that the doctor was talking about someone else. He died gasping for oxygen in front of me", Ms Yadav recounted, choking back tears.