The way we die Pandemic (documentary script)

  THE WAY WE DIE IN PANDEMIC

Person 1: I wasn’t there when she died, she was probably all there in darkness, alone, lying on her hospital bed, struggling for life, hoping, and then she....

NEWS HEADLINE:

Nurse: I was crying, huge amount of people were dying and we all felt so helpless... 

Doctor 1: We were struggling, a huge number of people were shouting, half of them were

struggling to breathe...

Video clip of hospital

Doctor 1: we were out of oxygen cylinders, number of attending doctors were less than the people. They all were calling for help but we were so helpless, we were trying but our every effort was in vein.

Person 2: It is hard to see your beloved ones, your mother, or father, or partner, siblings or relatives to see lying on hospital beds with no energy in their body.....

Doctor 2: we had no time for sleep, eat or do any other activities, we devoted ourselves to fulfill our oaths... it was depressing...

NEWS HEADLINE:

COVID 19 OUT BREAK MORE THAN 1,000,000 PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAS LOST THEIR LIVES.

Person 3: I was shouting for help.... people were in a miserable state.... I begged doctors and police to check my father... he could not breathe... no one was helping him... he was lying in Ambulance which had no oxygen cylinder... My father last words was.... I am choking... and he died.

Doctor: I could hear the people begging us... to save their lives... but it was in vein... medical science was failing to help people... to save them... the only possible solution was vaccination... but it could take a decade to make an anti-dose.

Person: I thought I had so much that I want to do, I have dreams, and I want to live.

Doctor: we just carry on the living, we have to, and you just can’t die along with every patient

who does not made it... that’s how it is...

Person: It was our last meeting I wanted to hug her for the last time she was right in front of me but I could not

Person: he was all packed up in a coffin, all I could see was a wooden box... I could not see him hug or touch him... I lost him.... For forever

 CASES OF PNEUMONIA OF UNKNOWN ETIOLOGY (UNKNOWN CAUSE) DETECTED

 IN WUHAN CITY, HUBEI PROVINCE OF CHINA

Voiceover: in a funeral, during COVID 19 pandemic a special team help people for all the rituals.... There is no warm hugs or comforting each other just a final meeting... a distant goodbye... and that’s all

Person: My mother was tested typhoid positive after a week of Eid festival... we took her to the hospital where she was tested for covid, she was taken to the covid ward... and then things got really hard she died 3 days later without her family, besides her... I could not help but imagine her all alone lying there in her ward.... The last time I called her was a night before she died in hospital, she picked up the call, and the signals were low as she was in basement ward.... I talked to her for a minute and 10 seconds... she was shorten of breathe while she was talking to me.... It was the last time I talked to her... she died... the very next day... I should have been more assertive but now.... It’s too late... we only die our own death once but we experience that of our loved ones over and over... feelings of guilt, failure, helplessness have all grown during this pandemic

VOICEOVER: The last day we received a call from hospital that your patient is dead and we should come as soon as possible at the time we reached there it took almost an hour to do paper work, in an hour more than 500 people were coming to the hospital and more than 100 people in that hour lost their beloved ones. In that ward where mother took her last breathe... 5 people died at that day too.

Psychologist: A lot of people are going through something, feeling of guilt, failure and helplessness but one should remember the time we have spent with them when they were alive. One should not emphasis on the last day but to the days they spent together... but it’s hard.

Doctor: one of the painful thing.... Which is now fully changed was... we used to go to the patients fully covered protecting clothing.... We can’t touch them bare handed... there is no skin contact or holding, touching hand or arm... I miss that... I never expected that things would turn out this way...

Doctor: till now the team is trying but no one knows how long this pandemic will last it is an extreme experience which has brought the team closer.

Doctor: I think every person here has broken down and cried in corridors or room... almost every person has lost their beloved ones... their family, friends or relatives...

Voiceover: Not always being able to always save people’s lives is a part of our everyday lives... but seeing hundreds of people dying... everyday... right in-front of our eyes makes us upset... it made us think about where is humanity and dignity putting all those bodies in a bag... it is time when we question about our professions... we became doctor or nurse to save people but its opposite of what we thought... we are all helpless. Writing 10 to 20 death certificates are not easy and informing their relatives is hard for us... but we have to do it... and sometime people made us think that we lack the ability to deliver to the news with the kind of empathy one should likely to have...

Doctor: I lost my family member and I could not attend the funeral, I was on duty trying to save other people lives... all I am left with is grieve... I have missed my chance... it’s really important to say goodbye to the person you loved.

Person: when I was tested covid positive, I was scared to die, I had my family, my mother, my husband, my children... I was afraid to leave them behind me... At that time no hospital in our area had a single bed, I, self-quarantined myself in a room at my home, my husband was taking care of me.... I could not see my loved ones for a month, I was all there by myself... I wanted to see them, touch them, and tell them how much I love them. Sometimes I could hear my younger child calling me “Mother, I miss you, you will be fine”, from behind the door, and I felt helpless at that time. I wanted to hug him and tell mommy loves him too. sometimes, I was shorten of breathe it was hard for to breathe... sometimes I could feel my lungs get shrink because of coughing all night... I was so weak, my body was so weak to move... it was probably the worst thing I have ever encounter in my life... all I could do was hope and pray, just to see my family last time before I die and tell them how much they mean to me...

Voiceover: Hundred people made it but thousands of them could not, they died, the death rates are increasing so the pressure on the scientist for an effective vaccination, typically it takes a decade or so but we don’t have enough time, people are dying, after the efforts of more than 100 of scientists all over the world few anti—dose are made, 3.1 percent of the world is already vaccinated but 96.9 percent still need the vaccination in order to save their lives and to live with their loved ones.

Doctor: we were all praying, seeing people dying is the hardest thing, everyone was united putting all their efforts, losing and standing simultaneously. We were happy for the people who made it, who survived the virus and sadden for the people who could not make it and lost their beloved ones.

Person: I thought I had so much that I want to do, I have dreams, and I want to live, I want to see my children grow up.

Voiceover: but the question is how fast we can do it? So many goodbyes are made in the time of social distancing, till the time of pandemic we can ask nurse or doctors to click a picture of our loved ones, or a hand print, or a pile of hair or fingerprint that way we can have something to look at, a memory, a belonging of our loved ones that we can touch and feel whenever we feel sad or a feeling of guilt arose that we could not made to see or hug them at their last time, it cannot end the feeling of sorrow, grief or guilt but it can help reducing it.

Person: All the misfortune or disasters the pandemic has brought, it is time for us to talk about death more openly, for instance the chance to ask how we want to say goodbye, what is important in our lives, at this point in our lives it is important to say goodbye to our loved ones in our senses lest we should be living a life or regret. The moments will never come back one must enjoy the time they had now.

Voiceover: Covid 19 has completely changed the way we die, the unheard cries, the not so good, good byes has left a mark that will leave a long lasting impact on us.

THE WAY WE DIE IN PANDEMIC

REFERENCES

Covid 19 death, origin etc, Wikipedia

Statistics of current cases and total vaccinated people, Worldometer Faces of some of the lives lost this year in the covid-19 crisis, abc news Covid 19 top headlines, AMCP.org

News references, YouTube

Cases: self-experienced, relatives and YouTube

Novel coronavirus covid-China, WHO

Pneumonia of unknown case-China, WHO

Dying of Coronavirus: A family painful goodbye, NYT news YouTube Coronavirus (COVID-19), Google News

The pandemic, Coronavirus-Explained, Netflix

The Race of a Vaccine, Netflix

India sets global record for new cases, BBC YouTube

Why a grieving doctor attacked a Mantri, CRUX YouTube