A Texas community is mourning the loss of a beloved pediatrician who was killed by another doctor in an apparent murder-suicide at her clinic on Tuesday night.
Lindley Dodson, MD, was only 43 years old and mother to three children — ages 5, 7, and 11 — when she was murdered by Bharat Narumanchi, MD, at Children’s Medical Group in Austin.
Narumanchi, also 43 years old and also a pediatrician, reportedly said he had terminal cancer, though his motivation for the killing remains a mystery. It was not apparent that he knew Dodson prior to asking for a job at the clinic a few days before Tuesday’s tragedy.
“We are beyond devastated at the tragic, sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Lindley,” Dodson’s family said in a statement. “As a dedicated mom, wife, daughter, friend and pediatrician, she radiated light, love and joy in everything she did and with everyone she touched. She developed immediate rapport with her patients and had the unique ability to make you feel like the only person in the room. She brightened our lives and lifted us up with her laughter, which was like magic. We are all better because of her.”
Around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Austin police received a 911 call that a man with a gun had entered a doctor’s office and was holding hostages inside.
Staff had recognized him from the week before, when he’d stopped in to apply for an unpaid administrative job, according to the Austin American-Statesman. He said he’d recently been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer and wanted to volunteer in the final 3 to 4 months he had left to live.
He returned to the clinic days later — this time with a pistol, a shotgun and two duffel bags. Several hostages were able to escape and others were later allowed to leave, according to Austin police, but Dodson was not.
Hostage negotiators attempted to make contact with Narumanchi but were unable to do so, according to police, so they sent in a SWAT team who found both Dodson and Narumanchi dead at around 10:45 p.m.
It appeared that Narumanchi shot himself after killing Dodson, police said. The Travis County Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the official cause and manner of death.
The American-Statesman reported that Narumanchi had a history of violent or erratic behavior. In 2012, he was charged with domestic abuse in Hawaii, though the case was later dismissed. Court records also show a tense child custody battle between him and an ex-wife, the newspaper reported.
He had medical licenses at various times in Oklahoma, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Florida and California, the paper reported.
Narumanchi did his pediatrics residency at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, after graduating from St. George’s University School of Medicine in the Caribbean.
Though he and Dodson were the same age and in the same specialty, there was no evidence of contact between them before he asked about the clinic job.
Dodson graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and went on to medical school at Louisiana State University in New Orleans. She completed residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She took a job at Boston Children’s in 2006, and a year later moved to Austin, where she worked at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, among others.
“We send our condolences to her loved ones and join our colleagues in the local health care community — along with countless families across Austin — in sadness and remembrance,” Dell Medical School said on Twitter.
Other members of the local community also voiced their support online.
Karen Vladeck, an attorney in Austin, tweeted that Dodson “made you feel like your child’s illness was the only one that mattered in that moment, even though you knew there was a line of other kids and parents waiting anxiously to see her. She always made you feel important and heard.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) called Dodson’s death a “tragic, tragic loss,” noting that she cared for his youngest two grandchildren and “so many other children across the community.”
Lee Beers, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that the “entire pediatric community is shocked and heartbroken over the tragic shooting of Dr. Katherine Lindley Dodson in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday. We grieve with her family, her colleagues, and her patient community, who have lost a caring pediatrician, friend, and mother.”
“There is no explanation for this kind of violence anywhere, and especially in a pediatric medical office, which should be a safe place focused on nurturing and healing,” Beers said in the statement. “We are mindful this has happened amid a pandemic that has also brought unprecedented stress and anxiety to families and medical providers alike. At a time when we would normally gather with friends and loved ones to seek comfort, we cannot do so in the same way. On behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics, we extend our deepest condolences, and offer our support to the Austin pediatric community.”
Last Updated January 28, 2021
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
