First-year student of family medicine working in Covid ward kills self

The stress of seeing people dying of the illness might have led him to take the step, one of his colleagues said.

A first-year student of family medicine who was working at the Covid-19 intensive care unit at Max Hospital in Saket died by suicide on Friday, police said.

He was found dead inside by the police, who recovered a suicide note. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

“He completed his work shift at 2pm yesterday, as usual. The hospital learnt of his passing from his neighbours. We are deeply pained by his untimely death and extend our sincere condolences to his family,” said a statement by the hospital.

The police were alerted by his wife’s friend on Friday night. He was found dead inside by the police, who recovered a suicide note. “The suicide note is addressed to his family and friends in which the deceased said he had good wishes for all the people he knew,” said deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur.

The stress of seeing people dying of the illness might have led him to take the step, one of his colleagues said.

“He has been working in the Covid-19 ICU, and seeing two or three deaths every day. Of course, we could not have done anything for these patients, but it is stressful,” said the colleague, who asked not to be named. He completed his shift on Friday afternoon, according to the hospital.