Pune: A doughty anganwadi worker wins life battle

PUNE: Her fighting spirit and love for her family spurred this anganwadi worker in her difficult battle against Covid-19.
“She knows I can’t live without her. So, she is back home after a tough fight,” the woman’s husband said on Wednesday.
The anganwadi worker was critically ill and on ventilator support for 12 days due to acute respiratory distress arising out of Covid-19.She was admitted to the Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical Hospital where she recovered and was discharged on Wednesday.
“She has been a fighter all her life. She has her own struggles professionally every day. She cooks for the family early in the morning, prepares tiffin boxes for the children, sends them to school, uses the public transport from Wadgaon Budruk to reach Panshet and then walks from Panshet to the school. After school, she walks back to the Panshet stop to catch a bus home. She is back to the chores. Isn’t that a fight too?”the husband said.
It was this struggle, her husband said, that made her capable of tackling the virus and helped her recover. Her treatment was almost free under the Mahatma Jotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana.
Her husband and three other family members were in quarantine at Naidu hospital. “She was not aware of this and kept asking the doctors why none of us had visited her. She wanted to see us, but the doctors handled the situation well. The doctors did a great job.”
Sanjay Lalwani, medical director of Bharati Hospital, said, the 41-year old anganwadi sevika, who was admitted on March 16 and tested positive for Covid-19, later developed full blown ARDS. She was ventilated from March 20, extubated on March 30 and discharged on Wednesday at 3pm. “All her vitals were stable and she left for her mother’s place in a hospital vehicle,” he added.