Young Chennai journalist dies of Covid-19 days after requesting ICU bed

A 28-year-old Chennai based journalist, identified as Pradeep Kumar, died of Covid-19 on Sunday, over two weeks after he exposed the unhygienic conditions at the Gurunanak school COVID care centre in Chennai’s Velachery, where he was being treated for the illness along with his mother.

The Chennai corporation later got the centre cleaned up after Pradeep shared pictures from the centre, some of which included uncleaned toilets and clogged drains. “Using the urinal/toilet means having to wade through clogged up faecal water, with floating sputum on it. Your feet smell of urine when you exit. Excessively salty and high sugar in the milk, turmeric milk and the tea that is given. This is a big problem for diabetics like me,” Pradeep had tweeted.

Further explaining the centre’s condition, Pradeep Kumar had informed a news agency, “I was shocked when we got there. The beds were all so close together and COVID-19 patients were walking around without even masks. To make matters worse, the centre was not even equipped to handle patients with comorbidities. All beverages that we received had sugar (which is not advised for diabetic patients). While we don’t expect high-quality food, we found it completely lacking in basic nutrients. We could barely eat the food but had no choice as we had to eat medicines.”

His last post on Twitter, which was a request for an ICU bed on May 17, read, “Hi @104_GoTN I’m trying to reach you urgently for an ICU bed request… Not able to connect… Pls help @mkstalin @Subramanian_ma @GSBediIAS #CovidHelp.” Pradeep Kumar passed away last night, nearly a week after he returned home.