A female student’s death in Punjabi University lifts the fog on respiratory pandemic in North India

Undiagnosed chronic respiratory illnesses were responsible for 1.8 lakh deaths in India in 2022, higher than Covid deaths in the same year.

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"I hate Patiala now. I want my son to go out and study like his sister. To Ludhiana, to Chandigarh, or to Moga, but not to Patiala," says Jurmeet, mother of a 20-year-old language student at Punjabi University, Patiala.

Her daughter, Jashandeep, passed away on the night of September 14 at 2.15 a.m. in their village Chauke (Bathinda), while Jurmeet was sleeping beside her. The family cremated the body the next morning.

Jashandeep's death was sudden for them. But her death followed a long history of prolonged respiratory difficulties, which she developed during the five-year languages course at Punjabi University, Patiala in 2021.

That year, she dropped out of college because of poor health. In 2023, she re-enrolled and maintained her attendance by sometimes wearing a mask to the classroom, taking regular multivitamins and relying on her village doctor.

Her hostel roommate, Prabjoot, told me that a night before Jashdeep died in her village, she coughed heavily in the hostel room. Recalling her first meeting with Jashan, her friend Meenakshi said that she struggled to bring her luggage from the university main gate to her hostel room on the second floor. She was wheezing, and was breathless on her first day of college.

In the absence of a post mortem report and any past medical record with Jashan's family, or with the university, it is impossible to detect the cause of her death on the night of September 14.

Her friends and family report 'prolonged wheezing and bad coughing' which was never diagnosed or treated.