COVID-19: Kin of Kerala Nurse Who Died in Ireland Recalls Memories

A 58-year-old nurse from Kottayam, Kerala, working in Ireland passed away due to coronavirus.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Last week, George Paul bid a good night to his wife Beena George, promising to come back the next day. Beena was ill and was admitted at the same hospital where she worked as a nurse for 10 years – Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ireland’s Drogheda town.

The same night, however, George received a call from the hospital, informing him that his 58-year-old wife had tested positive for coronavirus. He was not to come to the hospital and to remain in quarantine. He, too, started experiencing certain symptoms – cough and severe throat pain, he said in an interview to Reji C Jacob of Irish Malayali, a Malayalam news website in Ireland. He waited patiently for her recovery; until he received the news that he had been dreading, from the hospital on Sunday morning.

“With profound grief and sorrow, I share the news that my wife Beena passed away peacefully around 6.30 this morning (Sunday) at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda,” he wrote on Facebook. The couple hail from the Kottayam district of Kerala.

Beena was also a cancer patient. She was undergoing treatment for stage-4 cancer when she first had pneumonia in March.

Recounting the first time she was admitted to the Drogheda hospital last month, George told Irish Malayali that since her fever was not reducing, they tested her and found that she had pneumonia. They then tested her for coronavirus, which came back negative. The couple was relieved.

“I still remember those days. I would sit by her side, holding her hand. Since she was a staff at the hospital, she told her co-workers and got me a comfortable chair. She was finicky about her food, too. She did not like the food at the canteen, so I would prepare kanji (rice porridge) and other traditional food from home and bring it to the hospital.”

George, a former professor at a college in Kerala

Seventeen days later, Beena recovered from pneumonia and was discharged. However, things took a turn for the worse two days after she reached home. She developed a fever and experienced shortness of breath. On advice from Drogheda hospital, she got admitted once again.

“It was an isolation ward. But I sat with her, holding her hand. They ran a test once again for coronavirus. The next day, she was feeling relatively better. I fed her some kanji and went back home, wishing her a good night and telling her that I will be back,” George said.

Beena is survived by George and their two daughters. She worked as a nurse at a government hospital in Pala, Kottayam, before moving to Ireland.

The family is now awaiting details of her funeral as per the COVID-19 protocols of the Irish government.

Two Malayalis Die in US

Meanwhile, two Malayalis died of COVID-19 in New York, United States of America.

Shawn George, a 21-year-old nursing student in New York, had tested positive last week and was in a hospital since then. He passed away on Sunday morning. He was settled in New York with his parents, who hail from Tiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district.

A 51-year-old man, Thankachan, who was a resident of Queens in New York city borough, too, died of COVID-19 on Saturday. He was an employee of the Metropolitan Transport Authority. He was under treatment at a hospital. A native of Thodupuzha in Idukki district of Kerala, Thankachan is survived by his wife and two children.

(This story was originally published with The News Minute and has been reposted with permission.)