Niece spent six days trying to track down NHS nurse uncle’s remains after he died alone at his London flat
A NIECE spent six days trying to track down her uncle’s remains after the NHS nurse died alone at his London flat.
Emylene Suelto Robertson received the tragic news that 51-year-old Donald ‘Dondee’ Suelto had died in his London flat last month after dying from suspected coronavirus.
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Police had been forced to break down the door after Emylene flagged concerns she hadn’t heard from him for five days.
And the tragedy was made all the more worse as the young woman was forced to spend hours on the phone desperately trying to find out where his body had been taken.
She told The Guardian: “We looked everywhere, me and my husband. We phoned so many police, different coroners and funeral homes searching for him.
“But no one told us what they did after they picked up his body from the flat. My family in the Philippines called me every day asking what we were doing with the body.”
It wasn’t until Tuesday – six days after he died – that she finally found his body had been taken to Poplar coroner’s court.
His cause of death is yet to be determined.
Emylene said she had last spoken to her uncle, who had no official next of kin, on April 2.
She claimed: “My uncle said to me: ‘I will catch the virus, because my patient coughed in front of me and I had no mask’.”
He had spent 18 years as a NHS nurse after migrating from the Philippines.
The tragedy comes as the death toll in the UK yesterday passed 15,000.
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More than 50 NHS workers are believed to have died after contracting coronavirus in the UK.
A spokesperson for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: “We are very saddened by Donald’s death and our thoughts and condolences are with his family, friends and colleagues at this especially difficult time.
“We strictly follow national guidance on the use of personal protective equipment. Donald was not working in an area for Covid-19 patients.”
It comes as it was revealed that supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers were running out.
This weekend, it was claimed NHS staff will have to treat coronavirus patients without full-length gowns.
Public Health England is set to tell frontline staff to wear a flimsy plastic apron when gowns have run out – which could lead to more hero healthcare workers contracting the virus.
Last night, the government announced 400,000 full-length gowns were expected to arrive from Turkey tomorrow.
However, the supply is only enough to last three days.
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When pressed on the issue, Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said: “Supply in some areas, particularly gowns and certain types of masks and aprons, is in short supply at the moment, and that must be an extremely anxious time for people working on the front line, but they should be assured that we are doing everything we can to correct this issue, and to get them the equipment that they need.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said he “would love to wave a magic wand” to have PPE fall from the sky.
Mr Hancock added: “But given that we have a global situation in which there is less PPE in the world than the world needs, obviously it’s going to be a huge pressure point.”
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Dame Donna Kinnair, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the situation showed “gut-wrenching shortages”.
She said: “It is little wonder they are in such fear for their own safety and that of their patients.
“This crisis is taking the lives of nursing staff, and their colleagues feel they’ve been left exposed.”