10 days ago, her mother also died of the deadly virus
Clarion India
NEW DELHI — Nabila Sadiq, the 38-year-old Assistant Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia’s Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, died in a Faridabad hospital on Monday night, 10 days after she tested positive for Covid — and sought an ICU bed for herself on Twitter.
“Any ICU bed leads? For myself,” she tweeted on May 4.
Ten days before Nabila’s death, her mother Nuzhat (76) died of Covid-related complications. Her father was hospitalised for Covid but was eventually discharged. Currently, he is under home quarantine, according to media reports.
Friends and family said Nabila wasn’t aware of her mother’s death, and died “worrying” about her parents.
Nabila was admitted to Al Shifa Hospital in Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, on May 5. Later, she was shifted to Fortis Faridabad hospital where she died after 10 days after remaining on ventilator.
Laraib Neyazi (27), an MA student from Jamia, told Indian Express: “When I came to know about her health, I rushed to her home with other students, and we started looking for a bed. We found one at Alshifa Hospital, where she also tested positive for Covid. Two to four students would always stay at the hospital. Meanwhile, we rushed her mother to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital but she passed away. We didn’t tell Nabila because she was critical…”
Waqar, another Jamia student, recalls calling “every hospital in Delhi-NCR to get an oxygen bed”.
“Her friends helped us get a bed at Fortis Hospital in Faridabad. However, her oxygen level dropped to 32%. After a CT scan, the doctor said her lungs were damaged. I received hundreds of calls every day from her colleagues, relatives and friends asking about her health. We didn’t know what to do” Waqar told the Express.
“Every student who was pursuing gender studies wanted to do his PhD under her mentorship. She helped so many people during the pandemic. We would talk to her and tell her that her parents were missing her, hoping she would feel better and recover. But on Saturday night she was put on a ventilator,” the Indian Express quoted Waqar as saying.
A message doing the rounds on social media and forwarded by Jamia Teachers Association (JTA) president Professor Majid Jamil, reads: “We lost crucial 4-5 hours when her oxygen level started to dip. The number of calls to hospitals, doctor friends was of no use because they reached saturation point.”
On Tuesday, her students and friends buried her at a graveyard in Mangolpuri. Her mother was also buried there ten days ago.
