Man remains stuck in Ghana, his wife, son battle coronavirus in city

After a 43-year-old woman with no history of international travel tested positive for Covid-19 along with her 14-year-old son, her husband, who is currently in Ghana,

After a 43-year-old woman with no history of international travel tested positive for Covid-19 along with her 14-year-old son, her husband, who is currently in Ghana, is trying to return to his family. The woman and her son are currently undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital, in Mulund.

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The Chembur-based family was plunged into uncertainty after the woman was diagnosed with Covid-19 on March 27. She had developed symptoms around March 19 and had intimated Kasturba Hospital twice, but the hospital refused to test her for the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19 because she had neither the required travel history nor contact with anyone who had tested positive.

“She went to a local physician who prescribed antibiotics that didn’t improve her condition, but did delay the diagnosis. Finally, on March 27, she approached a private laboratory that found her positive for Covid-19,” said her husband who went to Ghana for a business trip on March 9 and has been stranded there due to travel restrictions and the lockdown in the wake of the outbreak.

“I was helpless as I was hundreds of kilometres away and I couldn’t do anything about it,” said the husband.

At present, the woman is in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Fortis Hospital, where she has been kept on minimal artificial breathing support.

The only silver lining has been that their nine-year-old daughter, who suffers from a rare neurological disorder that affects brain development, has tested negative. She is now in home quarantine, with one of the family’s domestic help.

“She is at my mother’s place, who is 78 years old,” said the man. However the girl is struggling to adjust to these unfamiliar circumstances.

“She is having seizures regularly as she can’t find her mother and brother. My wife, who is admitted in ICU, keeps worrying about her, which is also affecting her recovery,” said the husband, who has appealed to the ministry of external affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office to bring him home to his family.

Family members have also started a petition, on change.org which has already received 9,000 signatures, in the hope of attracting the attention of the government authorities.

“I know everything is closed down but still, the government is running emergency services across borders. I need passage to come back to my family who need me. This is a plea to the government from a father,” he said.