Chandigarh: Chandan Jindal, a fourth-year MBBS student from Barnala in Punjab, died in Ukraine on Wednesday after suffering from an ischemic stroke. He is the second Indian student to die in a war-torn country.
Sources close to the family said that Chandan, 22, who was studying at Vinnytsia National Pyrogov Memorial Medical University at Vinnytsia in Ukraine suffered from a stroke on February 2 as he had a clot in the brain. He was admitted to a hospital there and operated upon on February 4 after consent from his family.
His father Shisan Kumar Jindal recently retired as a chief pharmacist from Barnala civil hospital and he along with his brother Krishan Gopal reached Ukraine on February 7 to take care of Chandan. While his uncle returned home on Tuesday, his father is still at Vinnytsia in Ukraine. The family back home got the tragic news that he breathed his last earlier in the day. His father has written to the Union government to make arrangements for bringing back his body.
Chandan’s uncle Dheeraj Kumar Daddahoor said, “His father Shishan Jindal is still stuck in Ukraine and we are in touch with senior functionaries in the Union government including Meenakshi Lekhi, the Union minister of state for external affairs, and he is expected to come back shortly as the arrangements in this regard are being made. While it will take some time for the body of Chandan to arrive here as paperwork is being done, the government is fully supporting the family,” he said.
Dheeraj said, “Earlier, an air ambulance was arranged to airlift Chandan from Vinnytsia in Ukraine but the doctors there refused as he was critical and on the ventilator, so the plan to airlift him was dropped due to his medical condition.”
Chandan had gone to Ukraine four years ago to do his MBBS degree and has an elder sister who is married.