Tributes to NHS staff who have died

Tributes have flooded in for NHS staff known to have died after contracting Covid-19.

Two nurses – both young mothers – five doctors and two healthcare assistants have contracted the coronavirus and died since the start of the outbreak.

Nurse Areema Nasreen, 36, died just after midnight on Thursday in intensive care at Walsall Manor Hospital in the West Midlands, the hospital where she had worked for 16 years.

Richard Beeken, chief executive of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “Her dedication to her role and her popularity amongst her colleagues is obvious to see with the outpouring of grief and concern we are seeing around the organisation and on social media.”

Aimee O’Rourke, 39, also died at the hospital she worked at, the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (QEQMH) in Margate, Kent, on Thursday.

Julie Gammon, ward manager on the acute medical unit where Ms O’Rourke worked, said: “She was such a kind and caring nurse, and she had a really special relationship with her patients and colleagues,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday reported that John Alagos, a 27-year-old nurse who treated coronavirus patients at Watford General Hospital, died after a shift on Friday.

His mother, Gina Gustilo, said he fell ill during a 12-hour shift but did not leave work early.

She told the paper: “I asked ‘Why didn’t you come home?’ He said he had asked other staff but they said they were short of staff and they did not let him go.”

Healthcare assistant Thomas Harvey, 57, a father of seven who worked at Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford, east London, died at home on March 29 after feeling unwell for several days.

Following his death, Mr Harvey’s family criticised the NHS over the level of personal protective equipment for staff.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said of the deceased at Saturday’s Number 10 press briefing: “They died while doing everything they could to help the sick and the suffering.

“We can all best honour them in playing our part in fighting the disease by staying home and slowing the spread.”