a 93-year-old trade union leader from Kolkata has donated her body for medical research to analyze the effects of coronavirus on humans, thereby becoming the first woman in the nation to donate the body for corona-related researches.
According to a statement released by the non-profit organization ‘Gandarpan,’ following its founder Brojo Roy, Jyotsna Bose became the second individual from West Bengal who agreed to have a pathological autopsy performed on her body after her death from COVID-19. Dr. Biswajit Chakraborty, an ophthalmologist who died as a result of the disease, was the third individual in the state whose corps was donated for the COVID research.
Dr Tista Basu, Jyotsna Bose’s grand-daughter, said that the trade unionist had promised to donate her body through Brojo Roy’s organization a decade ago, and on May 14, she was admitted to a hospital in the Beliaghata area of north Kolkata, where she lost her life. She said, “The pathological autopsy of my grandmother was conducted at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. Hers is the first female body in the country donated for pathological autopsy following death due to COVID-19”.
Jyotsna Bose was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 1927. Bose’s father, while returning from Burma in times of World War II, went missing. As a result, the family encountered a serious financial crisis. She dropped out of school and went to work as an operator for British Telephones. Bose’s granddaughter said that later, Jyotsna Bose became active in the trade union movement, and also took part in the 1946 posts and telegraph strike, supporting the Naval Mutiny. She later married influential trade unionist Moni Gopal Basu and stayed involved in social and political causes after she retired.
