An NHS hero treating coronavirus patients was evicted and allegedly "told to buy a tent" by a landlady.
Vincent Okafor, a consultant geriatrician, was suddenly given five days to leave his home last month because his landlord feared he was infected by Covid-19.
The 57-year-old medic had moved to Hereford from Birmingham in March to volunteer to assist services at Hereford County Hospital.
But after his eviction, he emailed 15 landlords suggested by the hospital - and had no offers. It's said one potential landlady even suggested he buy a tent in which to live.
Dr Okafor said: "My landlord served me a verbal eviction order to pack out of his property. His reason was that since I work at the hospital and treat the elderly, I was likely to bring the virus to his house.
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“I didn’t have anywhere to stay to help the people I was recruited to come and help.
“One lady asked whether I was one of the doctors that had offered to help with the NHS’ fight against coronavirus.
“I told her I was, and she told me she didn’t have any accommodation for me.
“She asked, why don’t you buy a tent?
“I thought to myself, even if I were to do that. Where would I pitch up? At the KFC car park?
"I was emailing people without knowing where their properties in Hereford were. I was desperate at the time."
On the day he was due to be evicted - March 27 - the man had been parked up in the hospital car park with his luggage in his car and nowhere to sleep.
Luckily, he was offered a place to stay at the last minute by a former neighbour which he says "restored his faith in humanity."
Despite being callously booted from his home, Dr Okafor, who usually works at Warwick Hospital, says he bears no animosity towards his former landlord.
The doctor added: “The guy has been very good. I’ve been in contact with him since and he has offered me more short-stay accommodation if needed. That was very nice of him.
“I suppose in every community there are always going to be very good people and not-so-good people.”
A colleague who had been living with Dr Okafor in the initial house became the first working NHS surgeon to die from coronavirus on March 25.
Dr Adil El Tayar, 64, had left for London two weeks before Dr Okafor's eviction and passed away at at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth.
As a result, Dr Okafor spent last week in isolation in Hereford to see if he had developed any Covid-19 symptoms.
He had not and returned home to his family in Birmingham last Friday (3/4).
Dr Okafor added: “I wanted to make sure I had no coronavirus symptoms before returning home.
“I don’t know when I will go back to work.
“I want to take some time to recover and see how the pandemic plays out. There are promising signs but it’s still too early to see.”
Paying tribute to his colleague Dr El Tayar, he added: “It came as a shock. Only a couple of weeks ago we had been living together and sharing meals.
“He was a very nice guy. He used to cook and invite us all to eat with him.
“He was well travelled. Oman, Saudia Arabia and Qatar: he told us about all these places and explained the situation in Sudan and South Sudan.
"We would just sit down and talk about many things.
“He was a really nice person. He was going to retire in two years’ time and his plan was to go back to Sudan. He wanted to set up a foundation to help the people there.”
