Kozhikode-native Sajeesh Puthur has always been proud of his wife Lini, a nurse, who put her official duties before everything else. On Sunday, when he urgently flew down from Bahrain to meet his wife, the 31-year-old nurse lay unconscious on a bed in the ICU of Medical College hospital.
After attending to Nipah patients at EMS Memorial Cooperative hospital at Perambra where she has been working for the past one year, Lini contracted the virus and fell ill. She passed away on Monday morning.
At their home in Chembanodu, Lini's husband Sajeesh has hardly come to terms with his wife's sudden death. Nor have their two children, aged two and five.
An accountant at a company in Bahrain, Sajeesh tells TNM that although Lini told him that she had fallen ill after attending to Nipah patients, he did not anticipate that it could be fatal. But as the people of Kerala and the state government remember and laud Lini for her commitment, Sajeesh says that it had always been in her nature to give priority to her official duties.
"She died doing her duty, and when I hear people appreciate her commitment to her work, I feel proud of her. She did her duty without hesitating and showed 100% commitment to what she did. Having worked as a nurse for the past 10 years, Lini always wanted to work in the government sector," Sajeesh says.
The last time he spoke to Lini was on Thursday morning, when her fever had not subsided. Lini was on her way to Medical College hospital, where, four days later, she breathed her last.
"When she was on her way to the hospital, she called me up and told me that her fever was not subsiding. She had been hugely affected by the death of a Nipah patient she attended to. The patient had been shifted to the medical college hospital after a few days at the Perambra hospital where she works. When she heard that the patient had died, she wept inconsolably. Even when she was going to the hospital to get treatment for herself, I felt that everything would be fine. That's the impression I got," Sajeesh says.
However, a call from his brother came as a shock to Sajeesh, who was told that he need to urgently fly down to Kozhikode, since Lini's condition was critical.
"When I went to see her on Sunday, she was unconscious. I held her hands for sometime and left. After that, a relative handed over a handwritten note to me. Lini had written it, I believe when she realised that she was not going to survive," Sajeesh says.
The note read: "I think I am almost on my way; I don't think I'll be able to meet you. Please look after our children. Take them with you to the Gulf; don't be all alone like our father, please."
Lini's death
Married for the past seven years, Lini and Sajeesh have two children. With Lini's death, the possibility of Sajeesh returning to Bahrain - where he has been working for five years - is weak.
Sajeesh will take up the job offered to him by the state government, as the responsibility of taking care of their children and Lini's mother has now fallen on his shoulders.