What a sad, tragic story:A girl's quick swine flu death
One minute she had a tummy ache, the next she was dying of swine flu
RAVEENA AULAKH
STAFF REPORTER
Within minutes, 6-year-old Rubjit Thindal went from happily chatting in the backseat of the car to collapsing and dying in her father's arms.
"If we had known it was so serious, we would have called 911," Kuldip Thindal, Rubjit's distraught mother, said in Punjabi yesterday. "She just had a stomach ache – she wasn't even crying."
Rubjit was pronounced dead at hospital barely 24 hours after showing signs of a fever. Later, doctors told her parents she had the H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu. She is believed to be the youngest person in Canada with the virus to have died.
On the evening of June 14, Rubjit had a bit of a fever and complained that her legs and arms hurt. The next morning, Kuldip took her to a walk-in clinic on McLaughlin Rd. and the doctor prescribed the pain reliever Advil.
By the afternoon, the little girl's fever was gone but she was complaining of a stomach ache.
Kuldip took her to the clinic again at about 2 p.m. The doctor gave her pills and told the Grade 1 student at Roberta Bondar School in Brampton to take it easy. She was fine for a bit, said Kuldip, but she kept asking "me to massage her arms and legs."
In the evening, when Rubjit said her stomach was still hurting, Kuldip and her husband, Gurmukh, decided to take her immediately to Georgetown Hospital.
Kuldip was driving. It was about 8 p.m. and they were five minutes from the hospital. Rubjit sat in the backseat with her dad, talking – as usual – and sipping apple juice.
A minute later, Rubjit suddenly put her hand on her chest and said it was hurting.
The next minute, her body went limp and she stopped breathing.
Gurmukh performed CPR while Kuldip raced into the hospital's parking lot.
It was about 8:05 p.m. when they arrived, Kuldip remembers. Two hours later, doctors confirmed their little girl was dead.
The exact cause of her death has not yet been determined, but the virus is known to have been a contributing factor, Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, told a news conference Monday.
The H1N1 virus is having a greater impact on young people. The average age of the 2,665 Ontarians infected with the virus is 21.
Dr. Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, explained that older people are more likely to have built up antibodies to fight the virus by having been infected with or vaccinated against similar strains in the past.
Rubjit's parents say they don't know where the little girl contracted the virus. The entire family has been tested and Kuldip said doctors have told them no one else has it.
Yesterday, Kuldip's daughter, Harmeen, 13, sat next to her. Her son, Gagan, 10, was on the computer watching videos of his sister singing and dancing to Punjabi music.
"She loved dressing up and having her photograph taken," he said.
The little girl would have turned 7 on Aug. 29. She asked her aunt in India to send her a blue salwar-kameez, a traditional Punjabi dress, and blue bangles for her birthday.
On the weekend, Kuldip bought a blue salwar-kameez and matching bangles for her daughter's funeral.
With files from Theresa Boyle
Toronto Star
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 06/23/09 -- The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) pays tribute to all victims of the Air India airplane tragedy that claimed 329 innocent lives and caused pain and hardship to many more. This year marks the 24th anniversary of the downing of Flight 182, off the coast of Ireland.
"The loss of 329 lives is a loss for all of society, and not just a loss for the victims' families," said Ram Raghbir Singh Chahal, President of the World Sikh Organization. "Amongst the victims were accomplished humanitarians, scientists, artists and community activists, from many different faiths: Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. The incomprehensible criminal act that resulted in the loss of their lives is an affront to all right thinking Canadians."
Speaking about the political aftermath of the Air India tragedy, Gian Singh Sandhu, Senior Policy Advisor for the World Sikh Organization, stated, "Tragically, the Sikh community has been doubly victimized from this tragedy. Not only were there significant numbers of Sikhs amongst the victims, but the Sikh community of Canada has lived under a cloud of suspicion ever since. Sikhs routinely faced interrogation, harassment and intimidation, by Canadian authorities in the first decade following the Air India tragedy. While the harassment has dissipated over time, the wounds left in its wake have not. Sikhs continue to face widespread public hostility, and are still largely misunderstood due to the very successful anti-Sikh media campaign launched against them throughout the 1980's and 1990's."
"For well over two decades, the WSO had been calling for an Inquiry into the botched RCMP and CSIS investigation, which left the victims, their families, and the Sikh community, with no closure or redress. Twenty-four years later, we continue to wait with the Air India Inquiry Report still pending; but with no real hope that the Inquiry will be able to ever redress the wrong that has been done to so many innocent victims, and the Canadian Sikh community," said Sandhu. "A tragedy like this cannot be easily forgotten, and nor should it be. We need to continue to be vigilant as a society in order to prevent such acts of violence, and the demonization of an entire community, from occurring again."
The World Sikh Organization (WSO) is a non-profit international organization with a mandate to promote and protect the interests of the Sikh Diaspora, as well as to promote and advocate for the protection of human rights for all individuals, irrespective of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and social and economic status. WSO was granted intervenor status in the Air India Commission of Inquiry.
Contacts:
The World Sikh Organization of Canada
Maj (retd.) Jasbeer Singh
Media Relations
(780)457-3333 or (780)235-6000
magmaint@hotmail.com
The World Sikh Organization of Canada
Gian Singh Sandhu
(250) 305-2440
gian@jackpinegroup.com
The genocide of 1984 demands our attention, for it is in danger of becoming lost in history, buried under communal politics, international relations and the government's emphatic silencing of human rights workers.Lost In History: 1984 Reconstructed by Gunisha Kaur
It is our duty to ensure that the right to life of all persons is upheld, regardless of their age, religion or gender. If a government is particularly tyrannical, then we must call attention to this unjust rule. If we shut our eyes to these atrocities and shut our ears to the anguished cries of our fellow human beings,
we silently acquiesce to inhumanity.
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