From the day Fayza Ansari, 14, was diagnosed with leukaemia, her life followed a tragic arc – turned away by hospitals, her sobbing pleas ignored, her parents desperately trying to find a bed for her.
“If beds aren’t available, what must poor patients do? Die?” These were Fayza’s last words, captured on a video taken by her father to gain some attention. The images of the frail and wild-eyed teenager, who by now was bleeding from her nose and ears, finally reached the top government hospital in the Indian capital, Delhi, where she was belatedly admitted on 5 December.
