Youth who jumped to death from Safdarjung hospital tests negative for COVID-19

New Delhi: The 23-year-old man who committed suicide by jumping off the seventh floor of Safdarjung Hospital, where he was taken for coronavirus testing from Delhi’s IGI Airport earlier this month, has tested negative for COVID-19.

A resident of Punjab’s Balachaur district, the man had arrived from Sydney on March 18, and was taken to the hospital after he complained of a headache during screening at the airport.

“He reached the hospital around 9 pm along with four other passengers. The incident took place within 30-35 minutes. His sample was collected and the report came back negative, a few days after the incident,” said a senior doctor from the hospital.

The Health Ministry, in a statement following the death, had said: “The patient reached around 9 pm and was taken to the seventh floor for admission and evaluation. When doctors reached the room, he wasn’t inside. At the same time, another doctor coming out of the building observed a body on the floor around 9.15 pm.”

His family in Punjab had alleged callous attitude by health officers and airport staff towards suspected patients. The family also claimed officials were not giving enough information about the hospital facilities at the airport.

“We went to Safdarjung to get information about him but the hospital did not tell us anything, and after an hour there, a staff member told us he must have been taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital because his name was not on their list. We then went to RML hospital and after struggling for an hour, we got the same reply. Then we went back to Safdarjung hospital to get his whereabouts,” his uncle Sukhdev Singh had told The Indian Express.

TIE