NEW DELHI: A journalist working with a Hindi daily succumbed to his injuries after he died by suicide jumping off the fourth floor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi where he was admitted after testing positive for Covid-19.He was critically injured and was admitted to the ICU. After testing positive for coronavirus, he was sending depressing messages to his friends and colleagues, sources said.
The journalist is survived by his wife and two daughters who live in Bhajanpura area of north-east Delhi. He was admitted to JPNATC, AIIMS on May 26 with Covid-19 symptoms.“Due to lockdown and Covid, he feared he would lose his job. He was going through a financial crisis also. He had complained that his boss was mentally torturing him,” said one of his friends.
Before taking the extreme step, the journalist in one of his messages on WhatsApp reportedly said: “Something big is going on inside here, there is no senior doctor here and they are injecting people without any test.”Questions are being raised as to how a person admitted in ICU could run out to commit suicide. The AIIMS said, “Around 1.55 pm on Monday, the man ran out of TC-I where he was admitted.”
It said hospital staff tried to stop him. “But he ran to the fourth floor, where he broke a window pane and jumped out. He was intubated and resuscitation was tried, but he succumbed to his injuries at 3.35 pm.”
AIIMS in a statement said, “He was making a significant recovery. He was stable and was planned for shifting to the general ward from ICU.”
The AIIMS also said he had a surgery for frontal lobe meiningioma (a type of brain tumour) at GB Pant Hospital in March. “When he was in JPNATAC for Covid treatment, he was having bouts of disorientation for which he was seen by a neurologist and psychiatrist and was put on medication. His family members were counselled about his condition,” said an AIIMS spokesperson.
Inquiry ordered
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan expressed his condolences over the death of the journalist, who died by suicide at AIIMS and ordered an inquiry into the incident. “Deeply shocked & saddened by the death of the young journalist,” he tweeted.