She had a dream, says family of Kerala doctor who died in US

India-born Dr Nita Kunnumpurath (30), who died after her car plunged into an alligator-infested canal in Florida in the United States (US) on Friday, cherished a dream, her shocked relatives in her home state of Kerala said.

She wanted to set up a hospital in Wayanad in north Kerala, where she had spent her formative years and studied till Grade X, they said.

Nita, who was pursuing her post-graduate studies in surgery in Miami, Florida, was travelling to her residence at Naples, when she lost control of the vehicle and plunged into a canal in a neighbourhood called Alligator Alley.

Reports suggested an American couple, who travelling behind her vehicle, stopped their car and tried to rescue her.

The man managed to pull her out and when he was about to drag an unconscious Nita out of the canal, alligators rushed towards him.

His wife, who was helping him to rescue her, alerted him about the lurking alligators and he was compelled to let her go, the police said.

Later, the police fired at the alligators and brought her ashore. She was dead by then, the police added.

“Nita was a hard-working girl. She always nurtured a dream to set up a hospital in Wayanad to treat the poor. Charity was in her blood. We could not believe she is no more,” said her uncle K Stephan, who was informed about the fatal accident on Saturday night.

Her father Thomas Kunnumpurath had migrated to the US after he retired from his government job. Nita had completed her Grade X from De Paul Public School in Kalpetta, the headquarters of Wayanad district. Her brother is a pharmacist and sister is a physiotherapist.

Her burial would be held in a church in Chicago in a couple of days, he added.