Hackney doctor who warned PM about urgent need for PPE dies after contracting coronavirus

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Doctor Abdul Mabud Chowdhury who died yesterday after contracting coronavirus
PA

A doctor who asked the Prime Minister to urgently provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for NHS workers has died after contracting the coronavirus.

Consultant urologist Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, died on Wednesday night, more than two weeks after being taken to hospital on March 23.

Just five days before being admitted, the father-of-two wrote a Facebook post to Boris Johnson bout the lack of PPE.

In the post on March 18, he wrote: “People appreciate us and salute us for our rewarding job which are very inspirational but I would like to say we have to protect ourselves and our families /kids in this global disaster/crisis by using appropriate PPE and remedies.”

Dr Chowdhury worked at Homerton University Hospital
PA

Family friend doctor Golam Rahat Khan said Dr Chowdhury had been worried about Covid-19 “long before” it reached the UK.

“He was telling me and other friends that coronavirus was very dangerous,” he said.

Dr Khan, 45, who has known Dr Chowdhury for nearly 20 years, described him as a “life-loving person”.

He added: “He liked singing and liked our own Bengali culture and loved English heritage.

“He was so caring, he would call us very often to come to his house.

“I last saw him on February 1 at my house for my son’s eighth birthday.”

Dr Chowdhury was concerned about the lack of PPE for NHS workers
PA

Dr Khan said none of Dr Chowdhury’s relatives were with him when he died at around 10.35pm at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

Dr Chowdhury, who worked at Homerton University Hospital in London, is survived by his wife and two children aged 18 and 11.

Paying tribute to Dr Khan, Homerton University Hospital’s chief executive Tracey Fletcher said: “Abdul will be greatly missed by every member of the urology department, as well as by all those who knew him in outpatients, wards, theatres and management.

“Our thoughts are with his family at this very sad time.”

The news comes after Anton Sebastianpillai, consultant geriatrician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London, died on Saturday, four days after being admitted to the intensive care unit.

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