Kolkata (Gurpreet Singh): Police have launched an investigation after a 30-year-old nurse was found dead inside a staff washroom at the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Thursday morning. The incident, which occurred during her night shift in the hospital’s high-dependency unit, has prompted both law enforcement and the state health department to initiate parallel probes to ascertain the exact cause of death.
According to preliminary police reports, the nurse reported for duty around 8:00 PM on Wednesday and went to the washroom in the Gynaecology Department building around 10:30 PM. When she failed to return, her colleagues checked on her, found the door locked from the inside, and subsequently broke it open, discovering her unconscious on the floor. On-duty doctors examined her and declared her dead at the scene, following which officers from the Entally police station and the Detective Department’s Homicide team arrived to secure the premises.
Initial findings revealed no visible marks of injury on the body, and no suicide note was recovered from the location. However, investigators recovered several medicine vials nearby, leading police to suspect a potential overdose of an anaesthetic drug administered via injection. Health Minister Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee visited the facility to speak with the deceased’s family and colleagues, describing her as a cheerful and dedicated professional whose sudden passing has left the hospital community deeply saddened.
Following a request from the nurse’s husband, authorities agreed to transfer the body to Kolkata Medical College for a post-mortem examination supervised by the head of its forensic medicine department. Additionally, an internal committee comprising senior medical superintendents, forensic heads, and nursing officials has been constituted by the health department, with instructions to submit a detailed report within seven days to clarify the circumstances surrounding the event.
