On December 5, TNM published a story about a young woman in Pulianthope who went into pre-term labour amidst raging floods in Chennai, triggered by Cyclone Michaung. The woman, named Sowmya, was in excruciating pain, but her husband and others were not able to find ways to transport her to a hospital or call an ambulance since the roads were inundated with water.
When TNM went back to the family, her husband Masood told us that Sowmya had delivered a stillborn, but they could not cut her umbilical cord. After pushing her and the baby in carts by hand, finally, they were able to hospitalise her at a government hospital. But now, the grieving family is in another crisis because they don’t have money to bury the infant’s body.
“I don’t have a place to bury my child and the hospital is asking for Rs 2500 for burial. I don’t have that kind of money to pay,” Masood told TNM, explaining that the child’s body has been in the mortuary for many days now and they don’t know what condition it is in.
Watch the full video story here, where TNM’s Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Masood.