This Article is From Aug 13, 2020

Wearing PPE, Trinamool Youth Leader Takes Man With Covid Symptoms To Hospital

When Satyakam Patnaik of nearby Gopiballavpur heard about it on Monday, without a second thought, he went to pharmacy, bought a PPE suit and drove to Mr Barik's house on a borrowed motorcycle.

Satyakam Patnaik took the man on his bike after the family failed to arrange an ambulance.

Kolkata:

A knight in shining armour we have all heard of. 

But here is a story of a knight in shining PPE, made famous by a video gone viral for the nicest possible reasons.

A man dressed fully in a white PPE suit was spotted riding a motorcycle with a pillion rider in a homemade red mask in West Bengal's Jhargram district on Monday.

The pillion rider is 43-year-old Amal Barik, a migrant labour who recently returned home to his Sijua village from Bokaro in Jharkhand in early August. He was feverish the last few days and fearful of COVID but unable to arrange an ambulance to get to hospital.

When Satyakam Patnaik of nearby Gopiballavpur heard about it on Monday, without a second thought, he went to pharmacy, bought a PPE suit and drove to Mr Barik's house on a borrowed motorcycle. 

After speaking to Mr Barik's wife and two children, he took the 43-year-old on his bike and drove back to his local hospital, waited till the doctor had examined the patients, taken a Covid swab and told then to go home and stay there till results come out. 

Satyakam Patnaik then drove Amal Barik home again. 

The distance was small, just 3 to 4 km, but the deed, beyond measure.

Mr Barik's test result has come out to be negative. However, one of the four people who accompanied him from Bokaro  has tested positive and been sent to a quarantine centre. The three others have been asked to isolate at home.

Satyakam Patnaik is a leader of the Trinamool youth wing, Yuva, at Gopiballavpur Block 1 and part of a Yuva Warrior club recently launched by Trinamool Yuva chief and party MP Abhishek Banerjee.

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