Cytokine storm kills youngest coronavirus victim in Valley

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 7

The death of a young man, who contracted coronavirus while attending to his father at a hospital in Kashmir, due to Covid-19 has shocked medical practitioners here.

Asif Mir, 32, of the Kralpora-Hawal locality of Srinagar died within hours at the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital after he developed cytokine storm, an immune system response wherein the body starts to attack its own cells and tissues rather than just fighting off the virus.

“He had no symptoms until Sunday. On Monday he came with pneumonia and was sick. His condition deteriorated within hours and he died. We believe it has happened because of cytokine storm,” said Principal, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, Dr Samia Rashid.

Mir was attending to his father at the gastroenterology department of the Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) Shireenbagh Srinagar since April 25. A patient and an attendant had tested positive for coronavirus at the SSH even though Mir’s father had tested negative twice for the coronavirus despite sharing the same ward.

Mir died at around 5pm on Wednesday at the SMHS hospital. His body was not released until his coronavirus test report came at 10.30 pm.

Mir’s death has shocked the doctors, who said it had busted the myth that coronavirus could kill only elderly and people with co-morbidities.

“This is the first death which can be attributed exclusively to coronavirus. The other eight people who died of CoVID-19 in J&K had co-morbidities,” said a physician at the GMC, Srinagar.