THE family of an NHS surgeon who died from coronavirus after volunteering to be on the frontline say he "wasn't protected".
Dr Adil El Tayar, an organ transplant consultant, died last Wednesday at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth, west London.
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His son Osman and daughter Abeer El Tayar, also doctors, told Sky News: "My dad came here in the early 1990s from Sudan and we were all raised here.
"We've received so much from this country, but I worry about his final days and wonder if enough was done to protect him.
"I suppose if he was properly protected perhaps this wouldn't have happened."
Abeer added: "I am angry. I feel like he was cheated a couple more years out of his life but at the end of the day it was his time. There was nothing we really could do.
"But you do try to think of things you could have done to help. Sometimes when you sit down you think about whether you could have called the ambulance sooner, or could the doctors have done something else?"
His cousin, journalist Zeinab Badawi, paid tribute to the 63-year-old in a report for BBC Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent programme.
She said she learned of Dr El Tayar's death just minutes before people across the country had joined together in applauding NHS workers on Thursday.
Dr El Tayar had volunteered to help in the A&E and general department of a hospital in the Midlands, she said.
"He'd wanted to be deployed where he would be most useful during the crisis.
"That was typical of my cousin Adil, always willing to help, always with a willing smile," Ms Badawi added.
'UNFORGIVING VIRUS'
The father of four children, two of whom are doctors in the NHS, would work up in the Midlands during the week, returning to London on the weekends.
Two weeks ago he became unwell and did not return to work, eventually having to be taken to hospital where he died.
She said: "It had taken just 12 days for Adil to go from a seemingly fit and capable doctor working in a busy hospital to lying in a hospital morgue.
"This virus is unforgiving, indiscriminate, and it can be brutal."
According to the BBC, Dr El Tayar had worked in Saudi Arabia and Sudan as well as at St Mary's and St George's hospitals in London.
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He graduated from the University of Khartoum in 1982 and moved to the UK in 1996, where he studied at the University of West London.
The British Ambassador to Sudan, Irfan Siddiq, paid tribute to Dr El Tayar on Twitter, writing: "Saddened to hear of Sudanese doctor Adel Altayar's death in the UK from Covid-19.
"Health workers around the world have shown extraordinary courage. We cannot thank them enough. In this fight we must listen to their advice."
Dr Hisham El Khidir, another cousin of Dr El Tayar, told the BBC: "Adil was someone who was central to our family, who was well-respected by so many people.
"Since his death on Wednesday I have had hundreds of text messages from his colleagues and friends. He will be sorely missed."
It comes as 381 people including a teen with no underlying health conditions died in 24 hours.
Britain's grim death toll now stands at 1,789 with 25,150 positive Covid-19 cases – up 2,706 from yesterday.
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