This story is from March 6, 2020

Bengaluru-bound NRI dies in Doha, kin clueless

Nine days after she mysteriously died in Doha while en route to Bengaluru from the US, Ritha Gopal's family is left grasping at straws unable to learn the cause of her death.
Bengaluru-bound NRI dies in Doha, kin clueless
Representative image
BENGALURU: Nine days after she mysteriously died in Doha while en route to Bengaluru from the US, Ritha Gopal's family is left grasping at straws unable to learn the cause of her death. A resident of Brookfield in Wisconsin, US, the 67-year-old NRI was headed to Bengaluru via Qatar Airways to attend a family function. She was from Karnataka.
The sister of Padmashri awardee KC Reddy, Ritha is survived by husband Kandavar Gopal and children Vikram Gopal and Pallavi.
All three of them are doctors. Kandavar was to join her in India a week after she arrived.
Her son Vikram told TOI: "My mother boarded the flight from Chicago on February 21 and reached Doha in Qatar the next day. After several hours of delay, we got the news that she had passed away." Vikram and his sister Pallavi live and work in New York. As soon as they got the news, they booked the next available flight and reached Doha around 5.50am local time on February 24.
The next few hours, which they spent to get her body released, were "traumatic". "On landing, some people from Qatar Airways introduced themselves as the medical team and took us to several places to complete the paperwork. However, no one bothered to answer questions on what caused her death. We asked them a number of times and they said their job was only to help us complete the documentation process. From 7am to 10pm, we ran from pillar to post unaware of how our mother died," he said, adding the body was handed over to them at 7.30pm on February 25.
Their concerns multiplied after they got varying reasons for her death from different people in Doha. "They kept changing their answers when we asked some of them. One told us she complained of chest pain and was rushed to the medical centre in Doha and another said she collapsed in the flight and died. We don't know what really happened," Vikram said.
The family, which has completed the last rites and immersed Ritha's ashes in Srirangapatna, has been trying to find out the reason for her death given that she didn't suffer from any life-threatening ailment.
Kandavar even wrote an email to Qatar Airways Medical Team at Doha airport seeking details, but so far, he only received automated replies from the company. TOI also contacted the airline via messages and emails but got no response.
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