Baldev Singh’s family gets well, but fights stigma

NAWANSHAHR: The family of 70-year-old Baldev Singh, who was Punjab's first Covid-19 fatality, is still struggling to overcome the shock of his death on March 18 and his widespread villification for being a ‘super-spreader.’ The family from Pathlwa village in Nawanshahr faced a massive health crisis when 14 — seven adults and seven children — of them tested positive for coronavirus after Baldev Singh's death and posthumous confirmation that he had contracted the virus.Baldev's three sons, their wives and their six children along with one daughter and her son had contracted the virus.
His three sons and five grandchildren have recovered and have been discharged and seven of them are back in Pathlawa village. The remaining six members are yet to recover completely.
The family, which did not even get to mourn their father's death properly, is grappling with mental trauma as they lost Baldev Singh, who suffered from diabetes and hypertension, and his wife within a gap of six weeks.
They lost father 6 weeks after mother passed away
First First our mother passed away, moments after Anand Karaj (Sikh marriage ceremony) of our youngest sister on February 7 in the Gurdwara complex itself and celebrations turned into grief. Then our father on died on March 18 and we were still struggling with severe trauma when people started blaming our father and even a campaign was launched against him and all this was very painful. In place sharing of our grief, we were subjected to more mental harassment,” Baldev Singh’s second son Fateh Singh told TOI on Monday from his home.
Fateh and four children were discharged on April 10 along with four grandchildren of the family and three others, including two companions of Baldev Singh, who had visited Germany and Italy before his death. His two brothers were discharged on Monday.
Several netizens blamed Baldev Singh for “hiding” his infection deliberately and Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in collaboration with Punjab Police even produced a video blaming him for spread of the virus in Punjab and the song already has over 3.9 million views. The Punjab DGP too shared the song on his Twitter handle but later removed it after villagers complained to the CM.
“Our father was already scheduled to go to Germany and Italy with Sant Gurbachan Singh and we impressed upon him to go as we thought it would help him to some extent to come out of sorrow. He went on February 20 and returned on March 7. We were still grieving our mother’s loss when our father also left us on March18,” he said.
“He got sick on March16, in the late evening we took him to a hospital in Phagwara. He was then referred to a prominent private hospital in Jalandhar. A few hours later, he was referred to Jalandhar civil hospital on the night of March 17 as they suspected he had contracted viral infection due to his travel history. There we were told that sample (for Covid-19) would be taken on the morning of March 18, then we said we would come back next morning as there was no fun in staying at hospital throughout the night just waiting for a test. We even gave our phone number and address. However, early on March18 his condition suddenly worsened and we rushed him to Civil Hospital Banga where he died in some minutes even as doctor and nursing staff quickly attended to him,” Fateh Singh said.