Doctor took her own life one week after warning

ABIRMINGHAM doctor and mother of one took her own life a week after paramedics were called to her home, amid concerns over her mental health, an inquest heard.

Gynaecologist Laxmi Kaneri was found dead at the Edgbaston home she shared with her husband and young son on September 16 last year. Her husband, Shekhar Kaneri, also a doctor, told the inquest: “I’m not confident she was helped properly when she needed it most”.

But Birmingham Coroner Louise Hunt, who recorded a suicide verdict, said: “I have heard no evidence to suggest there were any deficiencies in her care.”

Just a week before her death, Mrs

Kaneri had been taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after becoming “very agitated” and making threats to take her own life after a discussion over relationship difficulties with her husband, the inquest heard.

A nurse said Mrs Kaneri was “calm, composed and well-presented” and declined to speak to psychiatric liaison nurses, before self-discharging.

The next day, she visited a GP where, again, she appeared “wellkempt and calm” and was assessed as “low risk”.

But just a week later Dr Kaneri found his wife hanged at their home. Mrs Kaneri, 45, had lived in Birmingham previously before returning to India in 2014.

The family returned to Birmingham in May 2019, when they set up home in Greville Drive, Edgbaston. Her husband told the inquest how his wife had suffered periods of “quietness, anguish and detachment”.

“A lack of jobs, opportunities and being isolated from her family in India led to her feeling angry, anxious and stressed,” he said.

Dr Kaneri said that because of “relationship difficulties”, he felt it might be better if he and his wife “went their separate ways”.

They discussed this on the morning of September 8, but Mrs Kaneri had become “very agitated” and said she would take her own life. “I became very worried she would take her own life and a call was made to 999,” said her husband.

“I locked the door to stop her leaving, on the advice of call handlers, and an ambulance crew arrived a few minutes later.

“They took her to A&E, but I was advised by the paramedics not to go too, in case worse.”

Dr Kaneri said he was shocked when, just a few hours later, Mrs Kaneri called their son’s phone to say she had left the hospital but felt she couldn’t come home. He said repeated phone calls were made in which she sounded upset and said she was “walking the streets” and was cold.

She spent the night with family friends and returned early the next day, when she got her son ready for school and, along with her husband, visited her GP. But no further action was taken when Mrs Kaneri presented as “calm and well-kempt” and reportedly told the GP: “I’m an Indian mother, do you really think I would harm myself?”

On the day of her death she prepared her son for school and he and Dr Kaneri left home “as normal”.

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