On 26th of June our members, Mr and Ms Sen, were feeling unwell and they called up our National Alarm Centre (NAC). NAC coordinators, Mr S Ghosh and Ms S Malakar, asked Member Care Associate (MCA) Mr S Das, who was near the Sen residence, to reach their house immediately. When the MCA reached the Sen residence, he found that both Mr and Ms Sen were in distress. Ms Sen’s condition seemed to be relatively worse, as she was also feeling dehydrated. Mr Sen’s daughter, who lives in Mumbai, was extremely worried and requested the MCA to accompany both her parents to the nearby hospital. The MCA called up the NAC and requested for an ambulance, which reached within a few minutes. The MCA accompanied Mr and Ms Sen to their preferred hospital, where they were kept in the emergency isolation ward and asked to wait for the mandatory RTPCR test. The MCA started looking into the paperwork and since there were technical issues with the members’ mobile, to avoid delay he completed the formalities from his mobile and assisted them with the preliminary tests. After the preliminary tests were done, Mr Sen was released while Ms Sen was admitted. Since the MCA was still looking into the paperwork and was not comfortable with the idea of Mr Sen managing on his own, he bought the medicines prescribed for Mr Sen and informed the Zonal Coordinator (ZC). The ZC immediately sent another MCA to Mr Sen’s residence to receive Mr Sen and settle him in his home, while Mr Das completed all the formalities in the hospital, got Ms Sen admitted, informed their daughter and signed off for the day.

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May 10: It was early in the morning when our member, Mr R. K. Ghosh, fell down in his room and found himself unable to get up. His attendant knew exactly what to do in case of an emergency and called our Zonal Co-ordinator (ZC), Mr G. Basak. It was 6.40 am. Mr Basak called the National Alarm Centre (NAC) immediately, had a Code Yellow declared and our Member Care Associate (MCA), Mr A. Das, rushed to his house. He found our member in distress—there was profuse bleeding. He informed the NAC and our ZC and a Code Red was declared. The MCA cleaned up the wound and bandaged it by the time the ambulance arrived and accompanied Mr Ghosh to the hospital.
The doctor stitched up the wound and wanted a scan. Our MCA took care of the paperwork and took Mr Ghosh for the scan, Meanwhile, the ZC had informed his children and assured them that their father was in good hands. Mr Ghosh’s son called the hospital and was assured that there were no internal injury. The MCA accompanied Mr Ghosh to his house, settled him, bought the prescribed medicines and arranged for a night attendant. Only after our member was at ease, did our ZC leave. Later, he also organised a 24-hour attendant with the member’s consent.

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For our ailing member, Mr P. Choudhury, April 27 began with serious breathlessness. Already frail and managing with the support of a nursing attendant, his condition started deteriorating around mid-day. His attendant called our Zonal Co-ordinator (ZC) Mr P. Maity sent our Member Care Associate (MCA), Mr S. Adhikari, to his house. Our MCA found him breathing very strenuously and informed Mr Maity, who called his relatives in Kolkata and told them that our member needed immediate hospitalisation. His relatives refused to have our member hospitalised because of the pandemic and wanted him to be put on oxygen at home and a doctor consulted.
The challenge was to procure oxygen. Ms S. Malakar from our National Alarm Centre (NAC) and Mr Maity talked to all our channel partners and other sources throughout Kolkata but no oxygen was available. Our team continued to search for oxygen and located a source around 8 pm; a cylinder with over 7,800 litres of oxygen. Without further ado, the required deposit was made, a mini truck was booked and the oxygen cylinder was taken to the member’s house and started immediately. We were relieved to see him get some relief.

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It was from his hospital bed that our member, Mr A. Ghose, had enrolled with us. He had contracted Covid but his wife was also admitted to the same hospital with a fractured leg. It was his son who got him our membership. Upon discharge, our Zonal Coordinator, Mr R. Maity, took charge and arranged for everything that he would need at home such as oxygen, medicines and trained home care from a centre. He supervised everything as our member’s wife was still in hospital, though she had been shifted to a hospital close to their home. Things were going fine and Mr Maity was in constant touch with him and his relatives. However, his health started deteriorating on April 23 and the oxygen saturation level was going down. To make things worse, the cylinder that he was using ran out of oxygen and he needed a replacement immediately. Mr Maity ran from pillar to post to get a replacement cylinder because there was an acute shortage and finally his attendant persuaded an ambulance to part with the oxygen cylinder for him. Even that did not help and things started to deteriorate further. Mr Maity consulted his son-in-law and had an ambulance brought in to shift him to the same hospital where his wife was admitted. The member’s relatives were extremely satisfied with the way the entire process was handled and happy with the service Support Elders provided even in these trying times.
Unfortunately, Mr Ghose passed away. His son-in-law performed the last rites but the entire process was handled by Mr Maity and his team, especially Mr S. Ghosh and Mr B. Maity, our Member Care Associates, who stayed with him in the crematorium the whole night, given the long queue. Mr Ghosh’s son-in-law expressed great satisfaction with the way the team helped him during the course of our member’s illness and hospital stay and praised them for all that they had done for the last rites to go through smoothly, saying that “they were God sent!”

Support Elders Impact: We give our heart to care for elders