DAD’S LEGACY... HIS SIX NHS HEROES
A FATHER who died of Covid- 19 despite shielding has been praised for leaving behind the ultimate legacy – six children who all work on the NHS front line.
Ahsan- ul- Haq Chaudry came to the UK from India as a teenager in the late Fifties. He went on to raise an ITU doctor, two GPs, a junior doctor, a paediatric consultant and a pharmacist.
The siblings have all been at the sharp end of the fight against Covid- 19.
Despite staying at home since March, Mr Chaudry, a retired maths and computer science teacher from east London, caught coronavirus and passed away on December 28, aged 81.
He was initially admitted to the accident and emergency department where his son previously worked, and died in the same hospital where his GP daughter worked treating Covid patients.
He was just weeks away from having the vaccine when he was admitted to Queen’s Hospital, Romford, east London, just before Christmas.
Mr Chaudry’s daughter – ITU doctor Saleyha Ahsan – was by his bedside when he died.
She said: “He had six children, including five doctors and one pharmacist and we have been tackling Covid all year. It’s been brutal.
“We all stayed away from our father for
extended periods to keep him safe.
“He shielded all year but somehow it still got through.
“We never really stopped to consider his legacy until now and it is only speaking to people about my dad and getting that feedback you realise how special it is.”
Powerless
Saleyha, 50, began her career as a journalist before completing Army officer training.
She decided she wanted to get into medicine while serving in Bosnia in 1997, as she felt powerless being unable to help treat trauma victims there.
Her sister Syira, 48, had already become a GP after
starting training straight after school while brother Shazlee, 47, became a pharmacist.
Of the younger siblings Saima, 38, is now a paediatric consultant at St Mary’s Hospital, London, while Safiyah, also 38, is a GP. Brother Shoaib, 32, currently works as a junior doctor.
Saleyha, who splits her time between working as a journalist in London and a doctor on ITU in Bangor, Wales, added: “I got into medicine at the age of 30, which was late.
“The others went into it straight from school. My sister was first and became a GP and I think that inspired the others.”
Mr Chaudry was 19 when he left India and never went back. He was
widowed when his wife Fauzia Ahsa died in 2019.
Saleyha said her father suffered from asthma and heart failure but had got it all under control.
She added: “He had a busy social life pre- Covid and was very active and prominent in the community.
“He had been shielding all year. We don’t know how he contracted Covid. Maybe after a sibling’s shopping trip? Maybe the carer who went out on his day off? We just don’t know.”
Saleyha urged everyone to take the new lockdown seriously. She said: “We need to be selfless as a community to tackle this and just got to get our head down and deal with it.”