Julie, a young woman from Singapore. Had alow grade fever that got better after taking Paracetamol. Four days later, shefelt giddy and was shifted to hospital where she was diagnosed as Covid-19positive. Consequently, she was taken to isolation room. Julie bravely survivedthe deadly virus and was discharged from sanatorium. Recalling her strugglewith coronavirus, she says- “One of the things I encountered was breathing. Ifelt like my lungs were going to overdrive, they were really making an effort.It is not like normal days when we are not even conscious of how we breathe. Itwas just challenging.”
Mr. P, a 101-year-old infected man inItaly, is among the oldest person on record to survive the coronavirus.Referred as “Mr. P” by Italian media, the man born in 1919, during the Spanishflu, survived the second pandemic. His survival was surprising, considering thehigh mortality rates in Italy when nearly 86% of deaths reported were aboutpatients above 70 years of age. After bringing him home, his family termedhis recovery as something that “teaches us that even at 101 years, the futureis not written.”
Nic Brown, a man in 40s from Ohio,recovered after put on a ventilator and full life support. Spending severaldays in the ICU, he came out alive and changed. Calling himself “a walkingmiracle” Brown said-“There is hope in this virus, God is bigger than thisvirus.” As a thank you note, he left a message for the entire staff, and hisnurse wrote it for him on the glass door of the ICU : ‘Saw the love of Godthrough those people’.
Back home, in one of the Covid-19designated hospitals, a little girl in quarantine ward was directed to getshifted to another room as she had a high viral load (high probability of beingpositive). Hearing this, her mother started weeping bitterly as her worldturned upside down. However, to the surprise of the staff present there, theysaw the little girl standing strong and, in fact, reassuring her mother-“Don’tcry Mummy, I am okay…I have no ailment….you see how God will help me.” And justa few hours after her staying in separate room, she was shifted back toquarantine ward as God had heard her. She turned to be negative for Covid-19!
From taking a breath, which many of us takeso for-granted, to defeating age with resolve, seeing divinity in those whowork on the frontline, day and night, and making God listen to us—thenarratives all around juggle between fortitude and melancholy; hope anddesolation; faith and resignation to defeat. We are all part of thesenarratives, universally intimate with a lingering relevance. A brush with deathand uncertainty is making us cherish life, and whatever it has bestowed uswith. Watching the excruciating displays of agony and helplessness, we humanshave hopes unfolding and lessons to draw from this life-threatening virus.
Bottomline: A famous theory of “flight orfight” first coined by Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon in 1920 describes theresponses of people in trouble. Either one could avoid facing the situation andrun away or else fight it out with strength and spirit, braving resistance andexhaustion. In the present scenario, we need to beat the virus withoutamplifying our fears. Of course, it’s the hardest fight we are fighting: thesoul-flattening fight for Life, exploding with lethally shocking scenarios.Coping with a catastrophe like this—amid limited resources, insufficientmedical care, plus sickening prejudices—needs more of resilience besidesadhering to health advisories….There is certainly ‘hope in this virus…for Godis bigger than this virus’ and the future definitely has not been finalizedyet.