Pandemics are a destructive force that results in great human tragedies. One such tragedy has happened in India to 30-year-old Lino Abel who helplessly watched through the window of an isolation ward as the body of his father being taken home for the last rites.
Having travelled from Qatar on the 8th of March, Abel had some mild symptoms and immediately reportedly himself to medical authorities. He was then quarantined in an isolation ward of the medical college in Kottayam.
His father, who was already ill suffered a stroke on the 9th of March and passed away. Although Abel was in the same hospital, he could not see him for one last time. As the ambulance carried his father’s body, he took one last glimpse from the window of his room.
Later in a Facebook post, he said:
If I had not reported myself, I could’ve seen my dad for one last time. But I did not, because I decided not to spread the disease in case I was affected. The experts here said, ‘please report to the health authorities. If you can spare a few days, you can spend the rest of your time happily with your family’… Isolation ward is not a concentration camp.
Abel’s decision to quarantine himself despite the situation garnered response for Kerala’s CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
It was an extremely sad situation. The youth travelled all the way to visit his father at hospital. Though he reached here, he was unable to meet his father. He showed exemplary courage and social commitment and responsibility by getting quarantined on his own.