AMN / New Delhi
Dr Jitendra Nath Pande, former head of the department of medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), died on Friday night with coronavirus disease (Covid-19). He was 78.
His colleagues and students remember him as an encyclopaedia of medicine, pioneer of critical care in northern India, as well as a dedicated doctor and teacher.
As a professor, he used to reach the wards for the morning round to check-in on all the admitted patients before his students. “He would be there at 7.30am every day. We were supposed to reach the wards at 8am, check on the patients and report to him,” said Dr Anoop Misra, one of his students, and now the chairman of Fortis C-DOC centre of excellence for diabetes, metabolic diseases and endocrinology.
Dr Pande and his wife tested positive for the infection on May 19 with mild symptoms but remained in home isolation, said AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria.
“We were following him up regularly. He said he was improving. Yesterday, he had his dinner and went off to sleep and then died possibly because of an acute cardiac event,” he said.
Dr Sangita Reddy, a senior Delhi doctor, said the disease has claimed its most illustrious victim.
“Deeply saddened to hear that today COVID-19 claimed its most illustrious victim, Dr JN Pande, Director and Professor of Pulmonology, AIIMS, New Delhi. A stalwart of the medical world, his work in pulmonology will continue to ensure better health for many. My Condolences to his family,” she tweeted.
Dr Pande’s death comes a day after a mess worker at AIIMS died of the disease, prompting allegations from the Resident Doctors Association that precautionary measures it demanded weeks back had not been taken.
“A mess worker from RPC canteen died of COVID-19 because the hostel section refused to take precautionary measures as demanded by RDA more than a month ago,” the RDA said in a letter to the AIIMS Director on Friday.