Teen cancer patient’s body found in Lko, suicide suspected
The body of a 19-year-old woman cancer patient from Lakhimpur.was discovered next to the Shatabdi Hospital building, early on Monday morning
For the second time this year, the KGMU campus has seen a possible suicide attempt, only this time, the patient did not survive.
This time, the body of a 19-year-old woman cancer patient from Lakhimpur.was discovered next to the Shatabdi Hospital building, early on Monday morning.
She was due for a chemotherapy session next week, but had come in on Sunday night, to bag an early morning appointment at the Surgical Oncology OPD, due to some health issues she was facing.
The patient was receiving treatment and chemotherapy for rectal cancer at the surgical oncology department of King George’s Medical University, hospital authorities said.
“According to her father, who had accompanied her from Lakhimpur, she was suffering from abdominal pain and some other issues, and had come to seek an appointment at the outpatient department for Monday,” said the head of media cell, KGMU, Dr KK Singh.
The patient had arrived at the hospital at 3AM on Monday, to get an OPD appointment when it opened at 8AM. Her body was discovered, and she was declared dead at the Trauma Centre at 6AM.
According to Dr Sudhir Singh, she was suffering from cancer of the large intestine (rectum), “She was receiving chemotherapy for the same. The chemotherapy was intended to bring the cancer to a stage where it could be surgically resected. She had an appointment for next week,” he said.
The patient would get a virtual appointment for every chemotherapy session, which would assign her a bed in the ward for the time of her session in advance. “This OPD visit was not for the chemo session,” he clarified.
Dr KK Singh said that the post-mortem examination, which is being handled by the police, and the investigation that will follow, will determine teh exact cause of her death, whether it was suicide or she fell for some other reason. “But when declaring her dead, doctors present said that there was evidence of her falling from a height, how that came to happen is as yet unclear,” he said.
The previous case of an attempted suicide took place in January, when a student jumped from the second floor of the hostel building. Fortunately, she survived, despite requiring the ventilator for a short while in the beginning of her treatment. The student from Kanpur was in her early 20s, and was cared for at the Critical Care Department of the Trauma Centre, and also counselled by doctors from the department of psychiatry afterwards.
