Ana Paola Romero sells her hair to fill the coronavirus grandfather’s oxygen tank▶ Click here for a larger view
In Mexico, where hospital beds are scarce due to the steep spread of new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), oxygen for Corona 19 patients who are treated at home is also precious.
While the long lines lined up to fill the oxygen tank became a familiar landscape, the story of a teenager who sold his hair to buy the oxygen he needed for his grandfather with Corona 19 became a hot topic.
Mexican media Millenio introduced the story of 16-year-old Ana Paola Romero, who lives in Toluca, Mexico, from a first-person perspective on the 7th (local time).
It was last month that Corona 19 hit the Romero family. Starting with my uncle’s first confirmation, nine families were infected one after another. Romero was also infected, but fortunately, she suffered from flu symptoms, intermittent headaches, and loss of taste and smell.
However, the 68-year-old grandfather, who had diabetes, was in serious condition. I stayed at home without being hospitalized, but my oxygen saturation was so low that I needed oxygen therapy.
The cost of the oxygen tank to keep charging was a huge burden for the family. Romero’s family had already spent more than 40,000 pesos (about 2.2 million won) in debt to buy oxygen and medicine.
Romero decided to sell her hair that was carefully grown up to the waist to help adults a little, and posted a story on Facebook with a picture of her head.
On the 3rd, he cut and sold his hair and Romero received 2,500 pesos (about 138,000 won). The oxygen cylinder I bought with the money I had grown for two years ran out in two hours.
But Romero said, “It’s better to lose your hair than to lose your grandfather. Your hair will grow back. A lot of people have cheered me for a haircut.”
People in line in front of free oxygen station in Mexico▶ Click here for a larger view
Romero’s family is not the only ones facing such difficulties.
The cumulative corona 19 confirmed in Mexico is 1.48 million, and the death toll is about 130,000. The previous day, the number of new confirmed cases was 13,345 and the number of deaths was 1,165, a record high.
After Christmas and the end of the year, the spread was getting faster and the hospital bed became saturated. As more and more people who could not be hospitalized because of no bed and would rather receive treatment at home, the demand for oxygen tanks increased.
As the demand increased, the cost of purchasing or charging oxygen tanks increased by 2-3 times, and guardians had to go to the charging station several times a day and line up.
Ivan, an employee at the oxygen charging station, recently told the Associated Press that “there are days when oxygen is exhausted and cannot be sold.”
There are also oxygen generators that generate oxygen by concentrating oxygen in the air instead of charging an oxygen tank, but it is a price that is difficult for the common people to handle, and the price has increased since Corona 19.
As the situation got worse, local governments have even installed free oxygen filling stations everywhere.
Officials in Mexico City, the capital, announced on the 6th that they will soon install additional free charging stations to prevent crowds from waiting in line for hours at the free charging stations.
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