A Bangladesh-born British doctor, who pleaded with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for more personal protective equipment for frontline staff in the battle against COVID-19, has died from the disease.
Published : 09 Apr 2020, 10:47 PM
Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, better known by his nickname Faisal among his friends, was a consultant urologist at Homerton hospital in east London.
The 53-year-old died after spending 15 days in Queens hospital, Romford, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. He had no underlying health conditions, it added.
“Dear and respectable prime minister Mr Boris Johnson, Please ensure urgently PPE for each and every NHS health worker,” he wrote last month on Facebook, outlining the urgent need for PPE and calling for testing for healthcare workers to be fast-tracked, according to the report.
He told Johnson that healthcare workers “are in direct contact with patients” and have a “human right like others to live in this world disease-free with our family and children”.
The Muslim Doctors Association said it was “deeply saddened” by his death. “He leaves behind his wife and two children. Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” it said in a Facebook post.
Chowdhury is the latest among a number of doctors with Black, Asian, and minority ethnic or BAME background to die from coronavirus in the UK.