HYDERABAD: The families of Kunchanapu Bheemaiah (26) and Kanamma (70) — two who died following a gastroenteritis outbreak in Vaddera basti — are still struggling to come to terms with their demise.
For Bheemaiah’s wife, Ranga and their two children, it is also the fear of homelessness that’s bogging the them down. Ranga is not sure how she will repay debt, with the primary breadwinner of the family no more. She works as a domestic help, her husband used to be employed at a car wash centre.
“We had loaned money last year to build house. Now we have debt of 2.5 lakh left to repay. I do not know how I’ll do it,” said a distraught Ranga when TOI visited the basti on Thursday.
Recounting the events of April 6 she added: “My children suffered from serious symptoms of diarrhoea. After they got better, my husband took ill. It was around midnight that Bheemaiah was rushed to hospital. Doctors found him unconscious with almost no pulse and used a defibrillator to resuscitate him. But their efforts failed and the 26-year-old was pronounced dead.
After being hit by Covid-19 and being unemployed for a year, Bheemaiah had bounced back and used to earn around 15,000 a month, sufficient to pay debt.
In the narrow alley adjacent to Ranga’s house, sits 85-year-old Papa Swamy on a platform opposite the house, still mourning the death of his 80-year-old wife, Kanamma. Papa Swamy, who hails from Krishnagiri and used to work as a stone mason explains that he feels lonely even though he has two daughters and two sons living close by. “I always told her that I would keep her happy till my last breath. But never could I even imagine that she would leave me first,” Swamy said.
Families of both of deceased, along with other locals recently discharged from hospital, maintained that they were healthy and did not have any co-morbidities.
They claimed that it was the drinking water that led to this outbreak.
