COVID +ve scribe jumps to death; Health Minister orders inquiry

NEW DELHI: A 37-year-old journalist undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the AIIMS Trauma Centre here died after allegedly jumping off the fourth floor of the hospital building on Monday afternoon, police said. The journalist worked with a Hindi daily and was a resident of north-east Delhi's Bhajanpura, they said. Meanwhile, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took to Twitter and condoled the death, adding that he had ordered the AIIMS Director to immediately constitute an official inquiry into the matter, "following which a highlevel committee has been set up" which is expected to submit a report in 48 hours.

Vardhan also said the committee would comprise the Chief of Neuroscience Centre, HOD of Psychiatry, Deputy Director (Admin) and the Head of Physical Medicine.

"He was admitted to AIIMS

Trauma Centre on June 24 and was apparently shifted to a High Dependency Unit at the hospital. He was admitted on the first floor," a source at AIIMS said. The hospital released an official statement, later in the evening and said that the journalist had undergone surgery for a frontal lobe meningioma at the GB Pant Hospital and "was having bouts of disorientation for which he was seen by Neurologist and Psychiatrist and put on medication".

AIIMS added that his family was regularly counselled about his condition and on Monday he had suddenly run out of his ward with hospital attendants chasing after him to try and stop him. The journalist "ran to the fourth floor where he broke a window pane and jumped out", the hospital said, adding that he was immediately moved into the ICU where he was intubated but attempts at resuscitation failed.