Doctor in COVID-hit India forced to decide who lives and who dies

‘Who to be saved and who not to be should be decided by God… But at this point in time, we are being made to do this.’

Rohan Aggarwal is 26 years old. He doesn’t even complete his medical training until next year. And yet, at one of the best hospitals in India, he is the doctor who must decide who will live and who will die when patients come to him gasping for breath, their family members begging for mercy. As India’s healthcare system teeters on the verge of collapse during a brutal second wave of the coronavirus, Aggarwal makes those decisions during a 27-hour workday that includes a grim overnight shift in charge of the emergency room at his New Delhi hospital.