LAHORE: A young doctor of the Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her hostel room here on Sunday.

The deceased gynecologist, Dr Naseem Ijaz (29), hailed from Gilgit Baltistan. Her family refused to initiate legal proceedings related to her death.

A doctor, seeking anonymity, said the hospital management broke open Dr Naseem’s hostel room door after they found no response from inside despite repeated knocks.

He said on entering the room, the officials found Dr Naseem lying unconscious. She was shifted to the hospital’s emergency ward where the duty doctor declared her ‘already dead’.

He said it would be premature to say anything about the actual cause of her death before the postmortem examination of the body.

Quoting some initial reports, he said the hospital administration had been informed by Dr Nasreen’s sister that she was not taking her (sister’s) call on her mobile phone despite repeated attempts. Her sister also contacted Dr Naseem’s colleagues at the hospital and informed them about the matter.

The Young Doctors Association secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said as the family of the deceased doctor had refused to initiate legal proceeding, the police should hand over them the body without the postmortem examination.

He said, quoting some YDA members from the Lady Willingdon Hospital as saying, that Dr Naseem was upset after the hospital administration refused to entertain her request for sick leaves. However, the administration denied the allegations, saying she had been granted leaves for a few days following her application.

Dr Kazmi said that he had suggested to the King Edward Medical University authorities to investigate into the matter at the institute level by constituting a committee of senior doctors to resolve the mystery behind the death of the doctor.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2023