A 58-year-old senior technical officer at Lok Nayak Hospital, Jessy Mathews, died of Covid-related complications on Tuesday. Mathews had been working at the hospital for 10 years.
She started work at a dispensary but soon was employed at the hospital’s biochemistry department.
She is survived by her husband and a daughter. Her family said her husband is unwell, and her final rites were performed by her daughter at Mangolpuri.
Her colleagues said Mathews was among the oldest staffers at the biochemistry lab but was “ambitious” and keen on learning new technologies.
“ I will always remember her as someone who loved to learn new things and never gave up. When she joined, things were different. Our lab is fully automated now, we have highly complicated biochemical analysers. We thought it would be difficult for her to adapt but she was quick. She was sincere and was kind to all her juniors,” said an officer at the hospital, who did not wish to be named.
Mathews lived with her family in Delhi’s Mangolpuri. She had got the second Covid shot last month.
Till April 20, she was on duty at the hospital and was performing routine tests for patients coming in.
The next day, she complained of “uneasiness” and was tested for Covid. On April 22, her report came back and she was sent for home isolation.
Her family said she was doing well and was recovering but on Monday her oxygen saturation level dropped suddenly.
Her junior at the department said, “ We received a call from her family about her health. She was immediately admitted to Lok Nayak. We thought she would recover. She was healthy… she only had an arthritis issue… but she died on Tuesday. Her husband is also unwell. We tried and helped her daughter with the last rites.”
Mathews is the third staffer from Lok Nayak who has succumbed to Covid in the last three days. Two nursing officers — Elizabeth Joseph and Ravinder Kaur — had died earlier this week. Both had not been vaccinated, their families and colleagues said.
