Shakuntala Gaikwad, a 76-year-old Indian, fell ill with Covid-19 in early May. The seventy-year-old became seriously ill and was taken to hospital by her relatives. With hospitals in India overcrowded in recent weeks due to the outbreak of the epidemic, Shakuntala Gaikwad’s family had to wait outside the facility in their vehicle.

However, while her family members waited for the patient to be admitted to the hospital, Shakuntala Gaikwad passed out. Her family members then noticed that she no longer appeared to be showing any vital signs.

Confident that the seventy-year-old would die, the family returned her body to their home, notified the rest of their relatives, and began organizing Shakuntala Gaikwad’s funeral, including his cremation.

But while the deceased’s coffin was ready to be lit, the seventy-year-old regained consciousness. She opened her eyes again and began to cry, as testified by a police officer who had watched the scene.

The actually very lively patient was admitted to the hospital, explains Dr. Sadanand Kale, founder of the Silver Jubilee Hospital Center in the far east of the country.

Epidemic outbreak and saturation of hospitals

In India, where an epidemic outbreak began at the end of March, the health situation has been critical for several weeks. At the beginning of May, the epidemic peaked in the country with a population of 1.3 billion. However, the number of deaths continues to rise and the virus kills more than 4,000 people every day. A crisis compounded by the emergence of a double variant of Covid-19 that is potentially more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines.

At the same time, a violent hurricane hit the second most populous country in the world, causing fears of power outages, but also a new influx of patients into already over-saturated hospitals.