British doctor kills self as lover weds in Pakistan

LONDON - A junior doctor in Britain committed suicide by taking an overdose of drugs after hearing about her Pakistani boyfriend’s arranged marriage, a court was told.

Jennifer Suraweera, 26, took a fatal overdose three weeks after her Pakistani boyfriend and colleague, Jawad Usman, told her he was getting married in his home country.

She was found drowsy and unresponsive by her brother Raj at her flat, the Sheffield Coroner’s Court heard.

A post mortem examination revealed Jennifer had taken a fatal dose of the beta-blocker Propanalol, Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Her brother, Raj Suraweera, himself a trainee doctor, said his sister never mentioned the drug.

He told the inquest: “It was a big shock for me. She had been stressed and I think after Usman called from Pakistan she didn’t want to tell anyone. She’s not someone who showed any sign of weakness in the past, she was a very tough person. I didn’t realise the extent of the time she was taking off work.”

Lynne Sykes, of Worsbrough Medical Centre, said in the months before her death, Jennifer had been having difficulties in her job.

In December, she was found collapsed in her consulting room and rushed to hospital unconscious. She was revived but no cause was diagnosed. She was off work for three weeks and fell further behind with her workload.

“Then, after two days back, she had more time off, first due to snow, then a fall in her bathroom, then flu, then laryngitis and then gallstones,” Sykes said.

“I was extremely dubious that the information being given was not right and that there was something she wasn’t telling me. She didn’t want to speak to me.

“I was under the impression something was troubling her. We discussed her collapse but she made no mention of Propanalol.”

The court was told that Jennifer had not been prescribed the beta-blocker, but she could have written her own prescription to obtain it.

Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts Wood adjourned the hearing to investigate prescriptions and to ask Jennifer’s mother - with whom she spent her last day - to attend court and give evidence.

He said: “The evidence I’ve got at the moment is the drug was not forced on her, so she must have taken it. She’s medically trained and I can assume she knew what it was for. She’s clearly taken it to excess voluntarily, but why?”