Nursing heroines who died for us all
TWO nurses have lost their lives to coronavirus – robbing six children of their mothers.
Aimee O’Rourke, 39, and Areema Nasreen, 36, both died in the intensive care units of the hospitals they served. Neither had prior health problems.
Miss Nasreen, who yesterday became the youngest NHS medic to die, had worked at Walsall Manor Hospital for 16 years. Miss O’Rourke died on Thursday night at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent.
A third nurse, a man in his 60s, is being treated in intensive care at Southend Hospital. Seven front-line NHS staff have now fallen victim.
One of Miss O’Rourke’s three daughters, Megan, said on Facebook: ‘Look at all the lives you looked after and all the families you comforted when patients passed away. You are an angel and you will wear your NHS crown forever more because you earned that crown the very first day you started.’
Her colleague Lucy Page said: ‘Aimee taught to me fight for what I believe in and gave me courage so many times to do it. I cannot tell how many times I saw her fighting for what was right for her patients.’
Miss Nasreen, who had three children aged 17, ten and eight with her husband Fasil Tahseen, became unwell around March 12. On March 20 she was taken to Walsall Manor and tested positive for Covid-19 and was treated in the intensive care unit with a ventilator.
Her sister Kazeema said: ‘My sister was my queen, my everything. She was an angel. We prayed she’d pull through this. Now I want everyone to know how dangerous it is, to take coronavirus seriously.
‘It doesn’t just take the elderly. She was fit and healthy. It doesn’t just take people with underlying health problems. She was an amazing nurse, on the front line.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘It shows the incredible bravery of every member of the NHS who goes into work knowing that these dangers are there. And I think the whole nation is grateful.’
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