When Pankajam, 76, was admitted to the COVID-19 ward of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on the night of May 14, 2021, it was reported widely in the media the next morning. Reason – it was Chief Minister M.K. Stalin who attended the distress call at ‘104’ helpline and arranged a bed for the patient who was battling for life with severely low oxygen levels. Pankajam was given oxygen support and later put on ventilator at the RGGGH where she died a couple of days later. The family was informed that she had tested positive for the virus but not given a copy of the report. After recording “respiratory failure” as the cause of death, the hospital handed over the body in a bag used for COVID-19 deaths. The family was instructed to go straight to the crematorium and dispose the body following the safety protocol, says B. Sridhar, her son.

A week later, his father M. Balakrishnan, 87, tested positive for COVID-19 and died in home quarantine on May 22, 2021. The death certificate confirmed that the death was due to the infection. “Since I was down with the virus, my friends and relatives participated in the funeral following the COVID-19 protocol. I lost both my parents one after the other in a week to the virus,” says Mr. Sridhar, 47, of Chetpet.

Yet to recover from the shock of losing his parents in the ongoing pandemic that also impacted his event management work, Mr. Sridhar says he got another shock when his application seeking ex-gratia of ₹50,000 each got rejected on January 31, 2022. No reason was cited by the authorities concerned for the denial of the financial assistance.

In December 2021, the State government ordered an ex-gratia of ₹50,000 from the State Disaster Response Fund for the kin of persons who have died of COVID-19. However, it was made clear that the cause of death had to be certified as COVID-19 as per guidelines jointly issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Council of Medical Research on September 3, 2021.

“We don’t know why the cause of death was recorded as respiratory failure for my mother. She developed respiratory problems due to the infection and we took her to a private hospital in Vanagaram. Since all beds were full, the doctors gave oxygen support at the lobby and asked us to look for beds in other hospitals. One of my friends called ‘104’ helpline at 10.30 p.m. on May 14, 2021. Chief Minister Stalin who was inspecting the facility at that time attended the call and helped us,” Mr. Sridhar said.