A 25-year-old junior resident at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Anurag Kumar, committed suicide Friday evening by jumping off the 10th floor of the doctors’ hostel at the institute.

Dr Kumar, who was a junior resident at the department of psychiatry, jumped to death around 5 pm, according to DCP (South) Atul Kumar Thakur. Police has recovered no suicide note so far.

Thakur stated that investigation proceedings have been initiated and the doctor’s mobile phone has been recovered.

A doctor from the department mentioned that Dr Kumar was on duty till late afternoon on Friday, following which he returned to the hostel. The doctor revealed that Dr Kumar’s room was on the third floor and his mother was staying with him.

A senior doctor from the department stated that Kumar had been undergoing treatment for depression. The senior doctor added that Kumar was quite vocal about mental health and had archived his journey in a blog last month.

Kumar’s blog post, dated June 21, titled ‘A psychiatry trainee’s struggle with depression’, talks about how he was diagnosed with a “severe depressive episode” and had felt “empty and low” despite securing a good rank in the AIIMS postgraduate entrance exam. He had also mentioned about his struggle with “suicidal thoughts”, stated that his mother was his “strongest pillar of support”, and also talked about how depression gave him an “opportunity to teach students”.

He further wrote, “I used to give an analogy of hypertension to explain depression; both can be reduced by exercise, meditation etc, but if it isn’t controlled you need medicines.”

Dr Adarsh of AIIMS resident doctors’ association stated that Dr Anurag was brilliant and excelled both in academics and co-curricular activities. Although he was successful, he still felt low and lethargic and had a deteriorating mood. He added that social stigma associated with mental health must be discouraged as it is treatable and the associated consequences preventable.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan also tweeted on learning about the unfortunate incident - “Shocked & distressed to hear of the painful death of young & most brilliant Dr Anurag Kumar, junior resident at AIIMS Delhi. He was under treatment for severe depression for sometime now and took away his own life. My heart bleeds for his family. Condolences to them and his colleagues.” He also tweeted Kumar’s blog.

Source: The Indian Express