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Man infected with Covid-19 kills himself at Delhi hospital

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Jul 07, 2020 12:44 AM IST

The man was a health reporter with a national daily and was admitted to AIIMS on June 24 after testing positive for the virus. He has been actively reporting on the Covid pandemic.

A 37-year-old man infected with Covid-19 allegedly jumped to his death from the fourth floor of the AIIMS trauma centre in Delhi, where he was being treated, on Monday afternoon, the hospital said.

The man was a health reporter with a national daily and was admitted to AIIMS on June 24 after testing positive for the virus. He has been actively reporting on the Covid pandemic.

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His mother and niece too are Covid positive, his friend said. His mother is in RML Hospital while his niece is in home isolation.

According to a statement released by AIIMS, the man was making “significant recovery” from Covid symptoms and was set to be moved to the general ward from the intensive care unit (ICU).

According to Devendra Arya, deputy commissioner of police (south-west), the man ran from the first- floor ICU to the fourth floor using the stairs. While there was no clarity on how exactly he broke the glass window, the DCP said that it was possible that he smashed through it by the sheer force of his body.

According to the hospital, some attendants ran behind but could not catch up with him.

“We rushed him in an ambulance to the hospital’s ICU and try to revive him, but he passed away at 3.35 pm,” the hospital’s statement said.

The man did not leave behind any note and the police were yet to ascertain the reason behind his step, his colleagues and friends said. They said he had been sending distress text messages to his work WhatsApp group, some news-related groups as well as to his friends.

“He wrote about his life being in danger at the hospital, about his belongings getting stolen, and about being moved to unknown hospitals. He repeatedly asked us for help. Since I was in close contact with him, I know he had never been moved out of AIIMS since his admission. It appears he had turned hysterical,” said a friend who didn’t want to be identified.

Dr Aarti Vij, the chairperson of AIIMS’ media and protocol division, said the man had been having “bouts of disorientation” for which he was being seen by a neurologist and a psychiatrist and put on medication.

The doctor said the man had undergone a surgery for removal of a brain tumour at GB Pant Hospital in March. His friends confirmed about the surgery and said he had also recently been injured in a road accident.

The man is survived by his wife and two children, including an infant daughter.

A senior police officer said inquest proceedings into the death had been initiated and the circumstances leading to his death will be probed.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Varshan, said on Twitter that he had ordered the AIIMS director to “immediately constitute an official inquiry into the incident”. “...a high-level commitee has been set up & shall submit its report within 48 hours,” the minister said while offering condolences to the journalist’s family.

Rajat Mitra, a clinical psychologist, said his hysterical messages could be a case of “paranoid delusion” due to an accident, some mental disturbances or a host of different issues.

“With some people working in the health department, there is a heightened receptivity towards catching an illness like Coronavirus. Many people, when they are directly associated with the health sector and things are not going fine in their lives, tend to believe something bad would happen to them,” said Mitra.

“It makes them vulnerable. Those reporting on an epidemic are specially vulnerable to such thoughts. They need adequate support, guidance and counselling from professionals as well as their family and colleagues,” Mitra said.

Suicide prevention helplines:

+914066202000 from ‘Roshni’ (Hyderabad-based) and +914424640050 from Sneha India Foundation (Delhi-based).

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