Adil El-Tayar: renowned NHS transplant surgeon who died from covid-19

Abstract

Photo credit: Abbas Ghazanfar On 25 March Adil El-Tayar, a renowned organ transplantation specialist, became the first working NHS surgeon to die from covid-19 in hospital in the UK. A healthy and active 64 year old, he is thought to have contracted the virus at a hospital in the Midlands, where he worked during the week. He cared deeply about the NHS, an institution he had spent his life serving. Born in Atbara, Sudan, a railway city on the Nile, El-Tayar was the eldest son of a government clerk and a housewife. He had 11 siblings. A close knit community, Atbara had been built by the British to serve the railway line between Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast and the Wadi Halfa in the north. It was here that the first Sudanese labour movement started in 1948. El-Tayar attended the local school and was a diligent student. During his childhood, one of his brothers, Osman, became ill and died without suitable medical treatment. Although El-Tayar rarely spoke about his brother’s death, he named his …