A son is paying £1,000 a day to keep his parents sick with Covid alive in India as they fight for their survival in hospital.
Vernon Rose, from Cheshire, is desperately worried for his parents who are receiving treatment in intensive care in the virus-ravaged country.
India is being hit hard by a fresh wave of coronavirus after a mutant strain began ripping through the population, causing infections and death rates to soar.
The situation has left families and Covid sufferes themselves forced to queue in the streets in hopes of securing short supplies of life-saving oxygen.
Devastating scenes of Covid victims burning in funeral pyres in mass cremations have shocked the world.
Vernon told Cheshire Live of the harrowing situation in India where his parents Stephen and Veronica Rose, 59 and 57, are receiving treatment in intensive care in the city of Pune.
Are your loved ones caught up in India’s coronavirus crisis? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk
(Image: Vernon Rose)
The couple were admitted to the Shree Samarth hospital on Thursday April 22, where they are now fighting for their lives.
Vernon, who lives in Ellesmere Port with his wife Corena and eighth-month-old son Xander, has been sending money to India in order to pay for his parents’ hospital stay and treatment.
He is unable to go and visit his parents as India is on the UK’s travel ‘red list’, but he has been able to keep in contact with his parents over video calls while receiving regular updates from their doctor, Dr Kalashetty.
The 33-year-old said: “We pray together every night. We call them so they can see their grandchild. They have not been able to spend much time with Xander.
“They are worried that they will never see their grandchild again but I am stuck here because India is on the red list so I wouldn’t be able to come back. I would have to leave my wife and son behind.
“I’m in a catch-22 situation. I can only give financial aid at the minute and get in touch with people there.”
(Image: Vernon Rose))
The ordeal is also starting to take a financial toll on Vernon, who is having to pay around £1,000 a day for his parents’ hospitalisation, as healthcare isn’t free in India unlike Britain’s NHS.
But while the situation is serious, Vernon said his family are not in the worst position compared to many other families, describing the Indian variant as “very deadly”.
The country’s death toll officially surpassed 200,000 this week as the crisis saw hospitals overwhelmed.
Vernon said: “The situation is very, very bad. The doctor tells me it is really scary and he was recently speaking to me, shattered, during a 72-hour shift.
“He was telling me that all he wanted was to cure his patients, so they can go home to their families, and just shut down to have a break. But he can’t.
“No doctor in India, not one, knows how to contain this virus. This virus is mutating, it’s developing, it’s adapting and it’s not only attacking the lungs.
“This variant of the virus is very different to the Chinese variant, the UK variant or the South African variant. This one is very deadly, it’s very aggressive and it’s very, very fast.
(Image: Vernon Rose)
Vernon also started a GoFundMe page when he started to struggle with his finances.
He said he was very grateful to the kind donors who had helped him, adding: “There are a lot of people in India who don’t have this opportunity that I have.
“There are horrific stories happening right now in India. There’s shortages of oxygen, shortages of equipment and there are no ventilators.
“We are really, really in a very dangerous spot. It is far from over, India is not in a good state. It needs all the prayers in the world and it needs all the contributions that the world can give.
“Everybody I speak to tells me just how scary it is.”
Vernon is trying to stay positive as he monitors his parents’ condition and said he has been “blessed” with help from a number of people.
The company he works for, RBH People Services, has contributed towards the medical bills and a friend in India called Gaurav, who runs an oxygen plant, has been able to provide oxygen to the hospital.
Vernon said: “There are a lot of people who don’t have finances or the facilities to help their finances. Yes, the Government is there but I think everybody knows that there are a lot of corrupt politicians in India where the money may not reach the people who deserve it.
“That is really unfortunate so I can’t have any complaints. Even if I just received £1 from Go Fund Me, it would still be £1 I did not have.”
- Anyone who wants to donate to help Vernon’s family can visit his fundraiser here.
