Students' body seek TN CM's help to bring back body of medical student from Philippines

Chennai, Aug 21 The Tamil Nadu Medical Students Association (TNMSA) has written to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin seeking his intervention in bringing back the body of a student who died in the Philippines where he was studying medicine.

A. Aswin (22), who hailed from Sirkazhi, passed away on August 10, but due to the Covid-induced restrictions and lack of funds, his body is still in the Philippines.

Aswin was a medical student at the Lyceum-Northwestern University in the Philippines. Having completed his final year MBBS, Aswin was about to join medical clerkship, which is equivalent to house surgency in India.

Before beginning clerkship, students are required to take six vaccines that are precautionary in nature. Aswin, according to the medical students here, had taken two vaccines the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella and the Hepatitis B vaccine. He took both the vaccines on August 9, a day before he died, according to his friends.

Aswin and his friends had taken the vaccines together. When his friends knocked his door the next day, he didn't answwer. They then broke open the door, only to find him lying dead.

According to his friends there, the doctors said that Aswin was hypersensitivity to vaccines.

Covid-19 restrictions and lack of funds had led to the delay in conducting an autopsy, embalm of the body, and intitiation of proceedings to transport the body to India.

The medical students here said that Aswin's friends have crowdfunded Rs 7 lakh to pay for the necessary expenses, as his family could not afford the cost. Aswin's father ran a small shop which was closed due to the lockdown.

The students were informed on Friday that Aswin's body, which is lying at the cargo complex of Manila international airport, may be sent to Chennai on Monday.

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