KOZHIKODE: An ailing IT professional, who was brought back from the UK, died at a private hospital here on Monday evening. Thalassery native Prasad Das (35) was suffering from gastrointestinal cancer for more than a year, and was afflicted with pneumonia recently. Hospital sources cited pneumonia as the cause of his death, with all tests for Covid-19 having returned negative.
Das was a software engineer with UST Global at Nottingham. He was diagnosed with cancer at a Kozhikode hospital, but took treatment in the UK as he was working there. But, as the disease was in an advanced stage, he decided to come back, wishing to spend his last days in his homeland. He arrived by a chartered flight on April 24, after interventions from the Central and state governments, and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
A WhatsApp group, Distress Management Collective, led by Justice (Rtd) Kurian Joseph and Alphons Kannanthanam MP too played a major role in bringing him back to the state. Tom Aditya, the Kerala-origin Mayor of Bradley Stoke, brought Das’s plight before the collective.
“Aditya requested to bring him back to Kerala as nothing more could be done there,” said Kannanthanam.
The surge in the number of Covid cases in the UK too pushed the decision to come back. Das is survived by wife and four-year old daughter.