Jamia professor, who sent out Twitter SOS for oxygen bed, dies of COVID

NEW DELHI: Days after she put out an SOS message on Twitter asking for an ICU bed for herself, Jamia Millia Islamia professor Nabila Sadiq lost her battle to coronavirus at the age of 38.

She is the fifth serving professor from the varsity to have succumbed to the virus in the last one month.

Sadiq had lost her mother Nuzhat to the virus on May 7 and is survived by her 85-year-old father Sadique, who is 80.

Sadiq was an assistant professor at the Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women's Studies at the varsity.

She had put out a message on May 4, "Any icu bed leads? For myself."

Later, she tweeted that she had got an ICU bed.

Her students and well-wishers had arranged a bed for her at Alshifa Hospital where she also tested positive for coronavirus.

Later, she was shifted to a hospital in Faridabad where she passed away on Monday night.

Mohammad Waqar, a former student of the varsity and who knew her since he had worked as a research assistant at the Sarojini Naidu Centre, was one of those who was instrumental in arranging a bed for her.

"She was admitted to Alshifa Hospital where the CT scan showed that 21 per cent of her lungs were damaged. She had asthma since childhood which made her condition critical. We arranged for a bed in Faridabad hospital where she was admitted on May 7. Initially, she was bipap, then she was put on NIV and later on ventilator but she could not survive. She was quite friendly and would always stay in touch with friends and relatives," he said.

Since her condition was critical, she was not informed about her mother''s demise.

Her father, Sadique, had also tested positive for the virus, but was discharged from the hospital.

"Her father was informed about her demise on Tuesday morning by neighbours. He is a very strong man. He was a professor at Aligarh Muslim University and then at Jawaharlal Nehru University," Waqar said.

Sadiq was a former JNU PhD scholar.

Former JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh expressed condolence on her demise.

"Our beloved Professor Nabila Sadiq is no more. Rest in Power," she posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Retired JNU Professor Kamal Chenoy, in a Facebook post, called her bright and "committed to academics" and condoled her demise along with his wife Anu Chenoy.

"How does one begin to condole the completely untimely and completely preventable death of a student, of a daughter of a valued colleague, the sister of another brilliant young student? There are few words but a lot of emotion," he said in a Facebook post.