Durban - A JOHANNESBURG maxillofacial surgeon died last Wednesday, more than a month after he tested positive for Covid-19.
Dr Yusuf Bamjee, 65, of Auckland Park, had displayed mild symptoms of the virus and self-isolated before he got tested on July 31.
Hours before he received the results on August 1, his wife, Aysha, began to cough.
Their son, Muhammad Rifat Bamjee, said: “I rushed to her room and monitored her oxygen levels. I then went to the bedroom next door where my dad was isolating, to tell him that mom was not well.
“While he was standing at her door, I asked him what I should do while I checked his oxygen levels.
“My dad then fainted but he soon regained consciousness.”
He said a doctor advised him and his mom to test for the virus. The doctor also told Rifat Bamjee that his parents should be admitted to hospital.
All their tests returned positive later that day.
Rifat Bamjee self-isolated at home.
“But I was stressed about my parents. We contacted each other every day and about six days later, my mom was discharged.”
His dad was transferred to ICU.
“The hospital staff tried non-invasive ventilation but he could not handle it. Before he was sedated and placed on a mechanical ventilator on August 12, my dad told the family over the phone that he loved us. He said we should not worry as he was strong. That was our last conversation with him.”
He said his father was later placed on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine.
“It reoxygenates the blood and acts as an artificial lung and heart.”
Bamjee’s condition later deteriorated and he was sedated.
“His blood pressure fluctuated. His organs were also impacted and his kidneys stopped functioning. He had to have dialysis.”
Rifat Bamjee said a fake message began circulating on social media last Tuesday that his father had died.
“But the doctor confirmed that my dad was still alive. My mother, brother and I requested permission to see my dad and we spent more than an hour with him that day.
“He looked more rested and peaceful after that. The following day, we were told that he had passed on.”
He said his dad founded the Infaq Educational and Charitable Trust that provided assistance to various facilities including orphanages and old- age homes.
“My dad lived for people and to serve people for the pleasure of God. He was the most content man I knew. He had no attachment to the world or material things.
“My dad was a person for the community and he cared for people and getting to know each of his patients.”
Yusuf Abramjee, a relative, said Bamjee was one of the founders of the Fordsburg Clinic where he worked before contracting the virus.
“He was a man of wisdom, an academic and one of the first maxillofacial surgeons of colour in the country in the 1980s. He helped thousands of patients over the years, some of them at no cost. We lost a father, uncle, brother, spiritual adviser and most of all a great man.”
Bamjee, a father of three and grandfather of two, was buried at Westpark Cemetery last Wednesday.
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