Sad: 23-year-old medical student throws herself under a train after failing exams

A medical student at King’s College became so distraught after she failed her exams that she attacked a classmate and then threw herself under a train.

Anita Trivedi, 23, died after she flung herself in front of a freight train that was travelling through a Southeast London station, near the medical school’s campus.

An inquest heard how Trivedi, from Newham, east London, had to resit her fourth year at medical school and was suffering from mood swings, eating problems, and hair loss.

According to eyewitnesses, her anger spilled over on the day that she died and assaulted one of her classmates, who she barely knew, in the college toilets during a break between lectures.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Anita lunged at her for no reason after she asked if she was okay.

The pair had only spoken on one other occasion at another lecture and the witness described Anita as ‘normal and happy’ the first time they met but a few days later, she launched an unprovoked attack against the girl in the bathroom, Southwark Coroner’s Court heard.

The witness said: ‘I had gone to the toilet and as I was washing my hands I noticed another student to the right of me. Anita walked in and didn’t use the toilet. She stood there for a bit and was staring and looked very distressed and was breathing very heavily.It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. It looked really scary. She was just staring at herself in the mirror. She had a blank expression, almost as if she wasn’t there in that moment. She just wasn’t the person I had met two days before. She just stared for what felt like ages. I felt bad and asked her if she was OK. She turned her head towards me and just lunged at me and started attacking me.She put her right fist out and started to attempt to punch me and I kept putting my hands out to stop. Then she hit me really hard on the left side of my head. I bent over the sink because I would have fallen over if I hadn’t put my hands out. I screamed ‘help’ and she ran out. She said nothing. We both tried to stop her [attacking] but she was too strong for both of us. We were just screaming. I couldn’t think of any reason she would hit me so it made me think there was something really wrong with her at the time. The other student asked if I was OK and I said I was fine and we need to find Anita.The college asked me if I wanted to press charges and I said no because she was clearly unwell. I thought she needed help.’

Another classmate, who also cannot be named, told the inquest: ‘She looked very distressed and was just staring at herself in the mirror not washing her hands or doing anything, just staring looking at her own reflection. She looked strange like something was troubling her. I would describe her as a bit wild, she had big wide open eyes and a strange expression. I heard the other girl say ‘Anita are you OK’ it seemed natural I didn’t know the girl myself or that they knew each other or what their relationship was. Then Anita went behind my back and grabbed the girl with one hand and started hitting her with with other. I tried to put my hands between the two of them to try and make her stop. When I got close it didn’t take very long before Anita ran out. It seemed like she was in a trance and it broke the trance and came out of it and came back to the room. I was quite concerned for Anita. It felt like a matter of urgency because she was running out, I felt she was in a bad state and wanted someone to go after her.’

Both students reported the incident to college security.

However, Anita was believed to be upset about having to repeat a year but her father and tutors had reassured her that failing a year was relatively common among medical students.

Friend Darena Dineva described Anita as ‘very hard working’ and said she struggled to accept that she had failed her exams.

‘I also failed my fourth year and am resitting this year,’ she said in a statement read at the inquest.

‘We were paired together as clinical partners. I had known Anita for three years and was her friend, she was a very private person. She had lost her half-sister and grandmother in the last year and said she find it hard to study because of the loss of her family members. She wanted time and space, she was a difficult person who didn’t open up and found it difficult to accept she had failed. We got the results from the exams on 16 July and after that she wouldn’t pick up the phone to anyone. I wasn’t aware of any real problems she had. I heard about the fight through the grapevine and it seemed totally out of character for her and I don’t know why this would happen. If she was being bullied she didn’t mention it and I wasn’t aware of any bulling at Kings. I don’t think she was being bullied. She was such a quiet person. She was a very nice person but I didn’t know her very well.’

Dr Tunji Lasoye, a consultant at Kings Hospital, described Anita as a ‘soft spoken, intelligent and articulate’ student.

Anita’s father, Kailash Trivedi, a general practitioner, said his daughter had seemed happy despite repeating a year after failing a set of exams.

One of her brothers said Anita had changed in the last year and was suffering from mood swings.

PC Sally Ramsden-Mallin said in a statement: ‘Her sibling said Anita had stopped believing in religion. One minute she was eating nothing, the next minute eating junk food. She had mood swings, one minute very happy and the next sad and depressed.’

Anita was also losing her jet black hair, the inquest was told.

Train driver Chris Cockburn said in a statement read at the inquest that he noticed a person walking on the tracks near the station that afternoon.

He added that when the person took ‘two noticeable steps’ towards the tracks he applied the emergency brakes and sounded the horn.

‘The person then did a forward dive into the track in front of me,’ he continued.

‘The train was coming to a stop and I was able to see the person lying on the track. The person made no attempt to get up off the track. When the train came to a halt 250 foot after the impact with the person and could not have stopped in time. It seemed to me this was a deliberate act.’

A number of eyewitnesses saw Anita jump into the path of the oncoming train, the inquest heard.

One bystander Ayyaz Iqbal said he saw a woman dive under the train.

He said: The female held out her arms in front of her and dived in front of the oncoming train. She was looking at the train when she dived.’

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sad.

Source: MailOnline