Social media drives Kerala doctor to suicide; was trolled over a child's death

A young orthopedic surgeon, who offered free treatment to a poor child, died by suicide today in Kerala's Kollam, apparently due to vicious trolling on social media.

Dr Anoop Krishna, 35, wrote "sorry" on a wall of his residence before taking the extreme step, said the police, which is investigating the allegations that he killed himself as he had received a lot of flak recently on social media for a surgery at his hospital in which a seven-year-old child had died.

The doctor agreed to do a pseudarthrosis of tibia correction surgery at his clinic for the girl child, news reports say, after some doctor denied treatment to her during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At his Anoop Ortho Centre in Kollam, he gave anesthesia to the child during the surgery. Post operation, the girl suffered developed ventricular fibrillation (abnormal rhythm of heart), a likely complication of anesthesia in a child with the disease, and died.

Social media trial

Family members and relatives of the child blamed the doctor and staged protests outside his hospital. The matter was taken up on social media by self-styled judges who started a malicious campaign against the doctor.

Not just social media, some television channels also ran shows against the doctor, holding him responsible for the girl's demise. The medical fraternity and his relatives believe that he was upset over the massive trolling and ended his life due to the resulting trauma.

Anguished over the loss of an energetic medical professional, doctors in Kerala have come out in support of Dr Anoop, condemning such trial by media without understanding facts, and demanding a proper law against such attacks, a new website reports.

Some doctors have pointed out that Dr Anoop had done several successful surgeries and sometimes things don't go as planned.

This is not a stay of social media's nature to bully others, mentally harass people with unsubstantial allegations, thus driving them to the edge.

In May this year, a Class 12 student jumped off the balcony of his 11^th floor flat after his friend shared a post on Instagram, accusing him of sexual harassment. In this case, social media trolled turned to harassing online the girl who accused the boy of sexual harassment.