mumbai

Updated: Mar 27, 2020 22:09 IST

An 85-year-old cardiac surgeon from a hospital in south Mumbai, who was diagnosed Covid-19 positive on Thursday morning, has succumbed to the infection.

Police sources told Hindustan Times that the senior doctor was suspected to have contracted the disease from his grandson (in his mid 20s), who had returned from the United Kingdom two weeks ago on March 12. The family, however, did not take him to hospital and instead home quarantined him. Police sources claimed that the 52-year-old son of the cardiac surgeon, who is also a heart specialist, has been diagnosed positive for Covid-19 too.

Following this, two family members are undergoing treatment for Covid-19 and two other members and a female domestic help have been undergoing tests for suspected contraction of the disease.

The civic and hospital authorities did not disclose the details of the incidents. However,the hospital issued a statement following his death.

Mumbai Police officials said that the doctor lived with his family in an apartment complex in the Girgaon area of south Mumbai.

Police officials told Hindustan Times the grandson of the deceased doctor, had gone to the United Kingdom for medical studies and had returned to India after the outbreak of the coronavirus there.

Police sources said that at the airport he was suspected to be infected with the virus , but his family managed to convince the authorities to allow him to go home as the his father and grandfather are senior doctors and would take care of his treatment.

The family kept the man isolated at home and gave him medicines, but eventually the grandfather got infected by the disease. On Wednesday, he was rushed to the Hinduja Hospital and diagnosed positive for the disease by the doctors. During treatment he succumbed to the infection in the night, hospital sources confirmed.

The local Mahim police and the civic authority were informed about the case by the hospital. Further inquiry by the civic and police officials revealed the entire chain of incidents.

Mahim police informed the LT Marg police which escorted the body from the hospital to the cemetery. “During the early hours of Friday the deceased’s body was cremated as per rules and in the presence of civic officials,” a police officer said requesting anonymity.

Since the doctor had been working at a prominent south Mumbai hospital, few people from the hospital who are suspected to have come in close contact of the doctor have been sent for medical examination, sources at the hospital said.