My Experience of COVID-19, or Personal History as Data for the Sociologist

Susan Visvanathan, an Indian social sciences professor, recounts her personal experience with COVID-19 in the first-person, personal essay, “My Experience of COVID-19, or Personal History as Data for the Sociologist.” Infected with the virus, Visvanathan and her daughter kept their condition a secret out of fear and spent ten days in bed, hoping the illness would recede on its own. Even when an oxygen monitor brought by a friend showed that her blood oxygen had dropped to a perilous level, Visvanathan remained apprehensive about seeking hospital care. Ultimately her daughters secured a bed for her in a private hospital, where she shared a ward with nine other women.

There, she describes collective atmosphere of lethargy, isolation, and the persistent weeping of fellow patients. Despite the bleakness, she highlights the compassion of the nurses who, despite being overburdened, found time to comfort patients. Upon her discharge 12 days later, Visvanathan expresses overwhelming gratitude—not only for surviving, but for the shared will to live that she experienced among the women and the care provided by the nurses.