Anil Baburao Wankhede made his living by seeing. The 56-year-old wedding photographer survived COVID during India’s second wave and left the hospital. Within days of coming home, his right eye began to swell shut.
He was readmitted with mucormycosis, the infection commonly called black fungus. It can invade blood vessels, cut off blood flow, and kill the surrounding tissue. To stop it from reaching his brain, surgeons removed his right eye.
This episode examines why India recorded about 71% of the world’s COVID-associated mucormycosis cases, how widespread steroid use and uncontrolled blood sugar created ideal conditions for the outbreak, and why a shortage of amphotericin B left families racing against an infection that advanced by the hour.
⚠️ Don’t let the system fail you.
Subscribe to Diagnosis Glitch for weekly medical mysteries exposed: https://www.youtube.com/@Diagnosis_Glitch?sub_confirmation=1
00:00 The recovery came for his eye
00:38 The photographer who lived by seeing
01:50 Black fungus targets the recovered
03:50 Anil’s eye begins to swell
04:57 Why India became the epicenter
07:09 From the sinus to the brain
08:23 How the fungus kills tissue
10:05 The drug and the knife
12:25 The medicine runs out
13:34 Anil’s outcome
15:04 The patients left behind
16:52 The real Diagnosis Glitch
• The Recovery Trap: patients who believed the worst was over became sick again after leaving the hospital.
• The Steroid Door: steroids can save people with severe COVID, but unnecessary or excessive use can suppress immunity and raise blood sugar.
• The Diabetes Crisis: uncontrolled blood sugar is a major risk factor for mucormycosis.
• The Drug Shortage: amphotericin B became scarce just as demand exploded.
We explore the edge cases where medicine fails: the misdiagnoses, anomalies, and system errors that cost lives. When the body glitches, we find the code.
This episode is a dramatized retelling of documented reporting on India’s 2021 COVID-associated mucormycosis outbreak. Anil Wankhede’s case is drawn from The Washington Post’s on-the-ground reporting. Certain narrative details are dramatized for storytelling; the medical facts are sourced. The CDC describes mucormycosis as a serious fungal infection. Tissue death occurs when the fungus invades blood vessels and blocks blood flow. This video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
#DiagnosisGlitch #BlackFungus #Mucormycosis
