.
.
He played it down. He discouraged wearing masks. He lied to the public.
And now, over 206,000 have died from #COVID19.
These preventable deaths leave families broken.
Watch Maddie’s story and VOTE because someone YOU love could be next.
Get involved at www.bravenewfilms.org/vote
This film tells the story of two Florida grandparents who lost their lives to COVID-19 and reminds us all of the importance of voting.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
[Music]
00:12
how are you
00:15
i’m working doing nothing doing nothing
00:18
okay maybe this will be fun maybe it’ll
00:21
entertain you
00:23
[Music]
00:26
my name is madelina kagi i live
00:29
in tallahassee florida my immediate
00:31
family
00:32
we are all really close i have two older
00:36
sisters and a little brother
00:38
my parents are amazing my mom is awesome
00:40
my dad is awesome i have a great family
00:42
i’m really lucky
00:43
my grandad is from mumbai india
00:46
he came to the us in the 60s
00:50
in his 20s so he came here and he met my
00:52
grandmother
00:53
who was a candy striper at the hospital
00:56
he became an ob gyn but he was still in
00:58
school
00:58
returning to nursing hospital in clinton
01:02
new jersey that was 63
01:05
and 64. they were just so in love with
01:08
each other
01:09
it was really unconventional especially
01:10
for their time there weren’t a lot of
01:12
indian americans or indians in america
01:14
they were married in 66 so they would
01:18
have been married next month
01:19
54 years no one in his family or her
01:22
family had really ever married outside
01:24
of their race or ethnicity my mom
01:26
was very very smart
01:29
extremely sensitive so she was adaptable
01:31
and growing up she was totally
01:33
that mom homemade halloween costumes all
01:36
our school functions
01:39
i was close with my grandfather and my
01:41
grandma
01:42
even just this past year i had done
01:45
a report on him for my school just about
01:48
his career because
01:49
he brought over this idea called the
01:52
birthing room
01:53
to america oh i got very happy
01:56
babies being born and made sure they’re
01:58
healthy and something simple like that
02:01
he was a very giving person he had his
02:03
own private practice
02:04
ob gyn he was constantly being called
02:06
away
02:07
but to his credit we didn’t feel like he
02:10
was an absent father or anything like
02:11
that
02:12
he was just the biggest role model and
02:14
learning about his career
02:16
in these last few months was so lucky
02:19
that i did that
02:20
that is just such a special time we
02:22
spent uh years together
02:24
um and we just sat around on the couch
02:28
and we talked to him about his life
02:31
and i had no idea how special and how
02:35
important it was
02:36
that we did that when you did the first
02:38
case of the deadly coronavirus
02:40
making its way to the u.s my sister was
02:43
mentioning
02:44
oh you know coronavirus is going to come
02:47
and i’m starting to see reports in
02:49
radiology journals about
02:51
the appearance on chest x-ray i did not
02:53
anticipate it to come here
02:55
and impact me as much as it did we
02:57
started getting concerned
02:59
my grandmother had been in the hospital
03:01
we got my mom into assisted living
03:03
we thought that she’d be safer there
03:05
than in the hospital or at home where
03:07
she had people and caregivers coming in
03:08
and out
03:09
she wanted my dad to be there she didn’t
03:11
want to be alone and he wanted to be
03:12
where she was
03:13
he got himself admitted there as well in
03:15
a room next door my grandparents were in
03:17
two separate rooms i should have been in
03:19
retrospect a lot more panicked about
03:20
them both being in this facility
03:22
but i really didn’t have a i didn’t have
03:24
the world view
03:26
about how little testing was being done
03:29
how little precautions were being done
03:31
the u.s is testing a far smaller
03:33
percentage of its people than countries
03:35
with smaller populations
03:36
there was no national program in
03:38
retrospect we should have got them out
03:40
of there and taken them home locked the
03:42
door
03:42
but we thought okay well they’re not at
03:44
home anymore they’re in a healthcare
03:46
facility and people will
03:47
there must you know i just i had this
03:50
blind faith
03:51
misplaced so then in april my mom first
03:55
got
03:55
a positive test my granddad still was
03:57
like i need to see
03:58
i need to see my wife i need to be with
04:00
her i need to be in that room and we
04:01
just
04:02
could not stop him so he went in there
04:05
and got sick they tested him and he was
04:09
positive and three days later
04:10
he was admitted i remember just like
04:14
freaking out cause it seemed like
04:19
impending doom that they were gonna die
04:21
the nursing staff who i was speaking
04:23
with
04:23
intermittently there among my brother
04:26
said that he didn’t look well
04:28
my dad was here and he was freaking out
04:30
he wanted
04:31
to be there and that was risky because
04:33
we were scared okay well dad’s gonna go
04:35
around our coveted positive granddad but
04:37
if dad gets sick
04:38
is he dad gonna die so he flew up there
04:41
saw my grandfather in my grandad’s room
04:44
and
04:45
we facetimed him a couple times
04:48
and that was it was awful his kidney
04:50
function was worsening his liver
04:51
function was awful
04:52
my grandfather’s face was just so
04:55
completely the opposite of what we
04:57
remember
04:57
him i mean he was so confused he had no
05:01
idea what was going on
05:02
um but he was really scared he called
05:05
out for us he was like you know
05:07
calling my older sister’s name like
05:08
meena mina why are you gonna come see me
05:10
again
05:11
um and like planning our next visit
05:14
to go visit him this summer um
05:17
so that was hard and he couldn’t really
05:19
recognize who was on the phone
05:22
all the patients in this room all the
05:24
feet that you see
05:26
they all have proven the icu in that
05:28
hospital was full so they were putting
05:30
people
05:31
in rooms that have a monitor but they’re
05:33
not icu rooms like
05:35
that you can see all around you with
05:36
glass so he was in a room
05:39
without a wooden door and they kept the
05:41
door closed because the nurses were all
05:43
full ppe so the only way they could see
05:45
my dad is they rigged up a baby monitor
05:48
one of the hospitalists taking care of
05:49
my dad was somebody who had known my
05:51
father
05:52
and because i was a physician and i was
05:54
wearing ppe
05:56
she let me come and relieve my brother
05:58
and stay with my dad that my dad
06:00
was allowed to go into the room as a
06:02
physician was a big deal and we’re
06:05
extremely grateful for that and my dad
06:07
he never liked being alone
06:09
so that the fact that we could be there
06:12
means a lot to me on the 27th he
06:15
he just went to sleep and that was it
06:18
seeing them go through that and seeing
06:20
the
06:20
the passing it’s traumatic there’s no
06:23
other way to say it it’s traumatic
06:25
it’s painful and you can never forget it
06:28
you can never unsee it you can never
06:30
unexperience it
06:35
my father’s biggest concern the last few
06:38
years of his life was taking care of my
06:40
mother
06:41
she also had coronavirus our focus
06:44
immediately turned to my mother
06:45
but she survived that first time and in
06:48
august she committed suicide so
06:52
that was really hard so we lost both of
06:54
them in a span of three months
06:56
as a child all it just feels like that
06:59
was the second covid related fatality
07:02
that was
07:03
another another crushing blow
07:06
hard even to feel because it had not
07:08
been even
07:10
90 days since my dad had passed i feel
07:13
like we haven’t even mourned him
07:14
properly
07:15
i was so so angry
07:18
following his death and i still am
07:21
really angry frustrated
07:22
i’m despairing even just watching people
07:25
complain
07:26
like oh starbucks is closed or oh i
07:29
can’t
07:30
i can’t sit down at this restaurant i’m
07:32
like oh my god you should be happy that
07:33
your grandparents aren’t dead are you
07:35
kidding me
07:35
i remember it must have been like a few
07:37
weeks after his death
07:38
president trump was doing an interview
07:41
and
07:42
they had asked him what do you want to
07:43
say to those families tonight i want to
07:45
say i love you
07:46
what the hell i don’t want you to tell
07:48
me that i want you to institute a
07:49
nationwide mass mandate like do
07:51
something about it i think wearing a
07:53
face mask
07:54
as i greet presidents prime ministers
07:57
i don’t see it for myself and ron
07:59
desantis i saw this
08:00
op-ed he wrote about how we can’t close
08:03
school sports because you know kids need
08:06
to bond kids into bond kids need to live
08:08
what are you talking about
08:09
trump he’ll never experience like what
08:12
we experienced because he can afford all
08:14
of that protection
08:15
drives you crazy i mean especially
08:18
because our death rates are
08:19
everyone just keeps dying and it doesn’t
08:21
feel like it’s ever going to end
08:23
life is already so painful life is hard
08:25
life is dangerous
08:26
people pass away every day i see that as
08:28
a physician people pass away from awful
08:31
awful things
08:31
part of that’s the circle of life this
08:33
is not part of the circle of life this
08:35
pandemic
08:36
and future pandemics aren’t natural
08:39
it doesn’t have to be that way you know
08:41
our time all comes someday but
08:43
this 180 000 people it wasn’t their time
08:46
these were preventable deaths
08:47
i would have done anything if it meant
08:50
my granddad and my grandmother could
08:52
still be alive i mean i would have
08:55
sat in my home for years use the
08:57
guidelines and open things up
08:59
i don’t think anything is worth
09:02
lives on a return to normal life our
09:05
country’s going to be open
09:06
if trump had just not politicized
09:08
wearing a mask
09:10
or caring about covid i really wonder if
09:13
my granddad would still be alive
09:14
this is more deadly this is five per
09:18
you know this is five percent versus one
09:20
percent and less than one percent
09:22
you know so this is deadly stuff i
09:24
wanted to always play it down
09:26
i still like playing it down so it’s
09:28
very very important that who you elect
09:31
is prepared
09:32
to be in crisis mode for a long time if
09:35
you had to do it all over again would
09:36
you do it again
09:37
oh absolutely
10:10
you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
