큰사진보기
▲  Group burial for COVID-19 victims is being prepared in Hart Island, New York. On Hart Island near the Bronx in New York City, an excavator is digging holes and moving piles of dirt to a dump truck on the 7th (local time). New York City is considering using the site as a temporary burial ground for the deaths of COVID-19.
ⓒ Yonhap News Agency/EPA	관련사진보기

 
Two days ago, while having a late lunch, I got a text message.
 

My brother went to heaven at 12:20 this afternoon. Thank you for praying for us, and please keep praying for him to go somewhere nice.

 
It made me suffocated. I was dazed for a moment. I collected my mind and read the message word by word again. It told me the same story. He had passed away. I couldn't believe it because he was so healthy.

A Tragedy That Happened Nearby

He was a city councilor in my neighborhood. He always gave me cool answers whenever I called him to ask questions. He was always busy and energetic. His office on the side of the road was crowded with people all the time and the phone rang without stopping. On days like Parents' Day and Thanksgiving Day, he held a neighborhood party and brought people together.

I came to know the news of his being in the hospital from a local newspaper a week ago. I carefully sent my regards to his wife because I didn't know how things were going on. A few hours later, his wife called me, but the voice over the phone was not the usual bright high tone.

"I'm okay, but my husband in the hospital is suffering greatly."

She was also in self-quarantining at home. After putting her husband in the hospital, she got a test, and the result was positive. Her husband was fighting COVID-19 at the hospital, and she was doing it in the empty house alone.

She said her husband went to a meeting one week before and one person there coughed a lot. Her husband felt somewhat uncomfortable, but after the meeting, he finished the schedule as usual. Then he found out that the man who had been coughing hard at the meeting was hospitalized with COVID-19. So, he went to the hospital himself to get the test. However, the hospital sent him back, saying he was not in a serious condition. In a few days, the wife took her husband, who had been in bad shape, back to the hospital. The hospital let him hospitalized because his condition became a lot worse than when he had come for the test on foot.

"He's breathing through the oxygen mask."

To my careful asking, she answered feebly.

In his mid-60s, isn't it the prime time of his life? He looked younger than his age because of his active and passionate personality. Considering his energetic appearance all the time, I didn't think he would bear the days lying in the hospital. So I thought he would stomp out of the hospital soon.

Unfortunately however, my prediction was all wrong. How coulda healthy person like himdie so easily? Thinking about his death, I also fell into depression for a few days.

So Many Deaths in New York
 

큰사진보기
▲  A body of COVID-19 in New York is carried by a forklift truck. On March 31 (local time), a vinyl-wrapped body of COVID-19is carried by a forklift to a refrigerated truck used as a makeshift morgue at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York.
ⓒ Yonhap News Agency/EPA	관련사진보기

 
On April 8(local time), 779 people died a day in New York. It is the largest single day death toll from COVID-19 since March 1, when the first COVID-19 patient occurred. As of noon of the day, 6,268 in total died in New York State. The number doubled in less than days after watching the news that the death toll of COVID-19 is over the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. So today, the flags in New York State have all been flown at half-staff to honor the state's COVID-19 victims.

A refrigerated tower car used to carry food is carrying dead bodies now. Funeral halls are saturated and crematoriums and cemeteries are already fully booked for weeks. However, a bigger tragedy is the fact that COVID-19 patients cannot be with their families even at the moment of death. Because of its high possibility of infection, meetings with family members are prohibited. Some hospitals let their patients have the chance to say goodbye through Face Time, but such consideration has long been a luxury at a time when one dies every two minutes.

At the funeral home, a limited number of families can only shed tears from afar. Some people receive only ashes in a box a few days after receiving a death call. There is no proper farewell, no consolation, and no sympathy.

Like those sending away their beloved ones without proper funerals, American societyis now witnessing that their pride and abundance of the world's strongest society is nothing but a delusion.
 

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▲  Sanders, US Senator,is at a press conference. US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is holding a press conference in Burlington, Vermont on the 11th.
ⓒ Yonhap News Agency/AP	관련사진보기

  
"Medicare for All" 

The slogan, which is so familiar to Koreans, is Bernie Sanders' catchphrase. The slogan should have been the hottest topic in the U.S., which is facing a pandemic with the world's worst Medicare coverage. However, Bernie Sanders has become a shabby dropout from the 2020 presidential race.

We're witnessing that the American Medicaresystem lets only the people survive who can afford the high premiumwhile others are dying. The system has become the blade that separates life from death. Even the 'American Dream,' representing hard work can make a good living, is becoming a handful of smoke in front of the epidemic. Koreans who chose the U.S. for their childrenor for their rich and happy old daysare now doubting whether the choice was the right one.

What If He Had Been in Korea

The councilor, who died of COVID-19, always took care of the funeral of his acquaintances when he was alive. For those who died while devoting themselves to the community, he called in a police band to play. He even controlled vehicles. The councilordid his best to help the local residents pay tribute to the dead. However, no one can be invited to his funeral because he died of COVID-19. Neither his wife who lived with him for nearly 40 years, nor the grandchildren he loved so much.

So I just imagine this. If he had caught COVID-19 in Korea, would he have closed his eyes so unjustly like that? Wouldn't he have had several chances to survive if he had lived in Korea, where every citizen is all wearing masks and trying to prevent the spread of the virus from each other, and where he could have been quickly diagnosed the infection at the hospital with enough rooms prepared for COVID-19 patients?
 

Written by HyunJung Choi.
Translated by Youngae Joanna Kim.
* This report is the English version of OhmyNews Korean article. If you want to read the original article in Korean, click here!