Medic’s suicide bid after viva failure


An MBBS student of the Fatima Memorial Medical College-cum-hospital suffered injuries when he jumped from the second floor of hospital’s building in an attempt to commit suicide in Shadman on Thursday.

Awon Muhammad, 21, a student of third professional, got dejected after he could not pass the supplementary exam.

Quoting witnesses, the Ichhra station house officer said Awon of the EME Housing Society, Chuhng, jumped from the second floor of the Fatima Memorial Hospital.

The SHO said Awon failed in a subject and appeared in the supplementary exam. He topped the written paper, but failed in viva with one mark. He apparently took the step in extreme disappointment.

He said the hospital administration had suspended from service his teacher, Dr Shahnaz, who also did not pass her daughter in the exam.

Why can a mere academic failure prove to be so fatal? Why students in Pakistan develop so many apprehensions regarding their studies? What a dilemma it would be for his parents! Is it due to lack of career management and counselling facilities in our institutes?

Attempting suicide for failing in a viva test shows the person was not psycholgically normal and had so many anxieties. His mere presence in a medical college shows he was a bright and extra ordinary student. So, why his family, teachers and peers could not see him below the surface? And all this happened while the hospital/colg where he was enrolled had a full fledge psychiatry department!

Dear,medical students are bright& hard working, they used to study long hours..but sometimes because of the rigid behavour of some teachers they get dejected and are forced to commit suicide..I still remember,when I was doing Fsc and My chemistery' teacher insulted my one class fellow during Viva by saying that "i dont think so such student can Pass Fsc"..she was though not extra ordinary science student,yet a very hard working girl...she left the labortary..and didnot give viva,so she failed in Fsc Exam..later on,she topped in B.A then M.A...now she is a qualifier of CSS 2009..its not an imaginary story,,she told me that when mam rebuked her,she wanted to commit suicide,but later on she decided not to give up any thing..she was criticized by her Family members ,peers,and relatives...but now all are satisfied..our teachers should be our best Psychiatrists,they can make or mar a student' career by their right or wrong guidance...when i read this news In Daily Dawn,i was so grieved..that student topped in written and the Failed in viva by only 1 mark...this faliure has wasted his whole academic year..teacher is resplonsible for his untimely death...it would be a great loss for his Parents and siblings...

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Fight for your dreams & your dreams will fight for you.

a sad incident
i want to highlight one issue here.
medical is not that tough and supply or detention is quite common. but medical students should not do such an act

fatima memorial is a private medical college and private medical colleges have high fees. i think its 6-7 lac per year.they take their own exam for admission and have about 100+ seats.(mostly who are unable to get admission in govt. sector medical colleges and can afford get admission in private medical colleges which are increasing day by day)

now in this case ,Awon failed in supply that means he is detained and he may have felt pressure of fee to be paid again.so may be failing in exam is correlated with fees to be paid again which may put real stress on poor fellow.

many factors including the mentioned one may have played role.
i have seen in majority private medical college ,marking in viva is lenient.
university of health sciences have introduced such a system in which not much is left in teacher's hand.

i hope he gets well soon both physically and mentally.he really needs support from his family.

our education system has no concept of psychiatrist.students' problems and stress are not an issue. western education system has such a setup that they keep evaluating students psychologically as well with academics.

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Reality is something you rise above.

Such situations are commonly seen in our society. Failure by 2, 4 marks in exams is very common thing. However, most of the time, the students are much prepared for the written part and even, sometimes commit shameless cheating acts like booti and when they are asked some questions in viva, they are failed, probably.

Moreover, if Dr. Shahnaz, didn't give any relaxation to his own daughter, then we can actually understand that he is such a teacher who wants to see a perfection in his students. Its our students who are that much emotional and sentimental who got dejected by such circumstances.

There should be someone to guide and motivate the students.

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~Time owns each and everything~
~Useless youth if not useful for Pakistan~

@ DeadlyDoctor
Yes I also think the most pressurising aspect would be the heavy fee. If it's 6-7 Lakh per annum, then without a doubt it was a great financial loss for his parents at that time. He would have apprehensions , how will he face his parents. 6-7 Lakh is a heavy fee.
Are all Private MC's like LMDC,FMC are cHARGING SO heavily?;

@unique
government self-finance seat for medical costs 2.5-3 lacs/year.
i think private medical colleges are having fee in the range of 5-8 lac/year with 7 lac/year in most colleges.
pressurising factors may be heavy fee,strict family,loss of a whole year,difficulty to cope tough teachers and stress of failing,personal issues etc

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Reality is something you rise above.

If we recall the movie 3 Idiots the case is same of Awon and that guy in movie who committed suicide. That movie was criticized on the ground that it persuades youth to resort to commit suicide whereas Mr. Perfectionist wanted to encourage youth and highlighted many problems of students.

In our society we impose education; it is not willfully rather children are forced to join specific profession. However, they lack interest in that profession and study it as a burden on their mind. Children are forced to join selected profession mostly they are insisted to study medical or engineering fields.

After middle or Matriculation there should be such a system which can gauge one’s aptitude and interest and admission should be given in selected courses according to the interest of students. If we impose something on them then we can’t expect excellence. Fear of failure, future and social behavior compels students even to resort to commit suicide.

There is also a gap between students and teachers and similarly between parents and children. Teachers should encourage them instead of demoralizing or failing them with little margin. In Balochistan Board a student was failed by just 1 mark and he got 32 marks in a paper because the teacher wanted to prove his efficiency and honestly by wasting the precious time of student.

Parents should also encourage their children and don’t expect extraordinarily. Moral and financial support from family is imperative for a student to perform well. On failure instead of criticizing, they should be supported thus making them more confident. However, students should also think positively and when one door is closed, hundred opens.

Life is full of opportunities, we have to survive in this world courageously and face the challenges bravely. Ending one’s life is get relief from the problems but what about others who love you (baba, mom, sis, bros) who care for you and who expect you something? You are asset of their future don’t leave them alone desperately.

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No matter how fast i run or how far i go it wont escape me, pain, misery, emptiness.

Dear All,

AoA ! Well all of you have given some interesting comments. Ive been myself a medical student who left MBBS & ive been also a student of Prof. Shahnaz. Lets hope that the mentioned prof. is not some one with the same name. She did the same with us where she failed 105 students out of 110.
Like in 3 IDIOTS, there are some professors who just dont want to pass students in Viva till the student begs them. They want to inflict sudents with agony & pain with which they have themselves suffered at any time in their life especially during student life. Unfortunately, Prof. Shahnaz is also one of those.
No one can understand the fact that facing world after leaving MBBS or after getting failed in it, what ever the cause may be, is just like you are on top of the world at one moment & at the next moment you are at the bottom. No one likes you. Every one especially relatives taunt whenever they get a chance especially those who lost in the race. Whatever reason you provide, true or false, in their eyes & comments you are merely one who was unable to study properly or was not fit enough to meet the standards.
At such a time when you are facing disgrace from family & relatives along with an annual loss of academic fee of 6-7 lacs,you know a huge amount of hard earned money of you family is ruined, you know your family is not able to afford another fee of 6 lacs, you know that whatever you do Professor is not going to pass you in Viva, You know you dont have any chance any where in the world to complain,you know,as in the discussed case, after getting failed you cant continue MBBS studies any where in Pakistan, you dont have any chance to go to court & fight the case, one day you are a doctor & next day you are merely intermediate qualified, What would you do then....!!!!!! Your whole life is literally ruined.....
You need to understand at such a age, a student cant even think of going to a court, cant even convince parents that why he failed. Only a student or medical professional can understand that how is it possible that a student is securing top marks in written & failing by just one mark in Viva.
Fact of the matter is failing by just one mark in viva is the indication & a practice of Professors to teach student a lesson whom they dont like. Any medical professional would agree with me bcz he knows the inside story of failing by one mark in Viva....

in private medical colleges , if such a professor who is so strict, exist then there is pressure from parents side to change or loosen up. many of students also passed from the same teacher. no doubt, dr.shahnaz has a strict attitude. but failing in one subject is not end of world. it is easy for students to explain their failure in presence of such teachers.
scoring good marks in written is not easy but sometimes luck helps.
as far as viva is concerned ,it is divided into small steps. more work is done on paper with the introduction of osce for last3 years to which teacher cannot do anything. only few marks are left in teacher''s hand ,about 30-40%.if you are well prepared you can easily get 50% in viva.
relatives and parents ,they are one's family. they have to be supportive and they are mostly.but in private medical college student himself takes pressure. relatives cannot say you anything and usually don't if you are in a medical college.from the first day you get admission in medical college ,people start calling you doctor sb.

failing from 1 mark is real bad luck. in the presence of such teacher,you can easily explain why you cannot. parents who pay such a heavy fee can put pressure on college admin for such rigid and biased attitude.teacher do such acts and they are bad ones but one should not lose hope.

awon has took a cowardly step,sad though. he can easily explain his failure and strict attitude of teacher. to prove himself he has written marks in his favour. well a sad incident ,i cannot be harsh otherwise i would have.....

we have easy standard of passing in mbbs in Pakistan as compared to Us or Uk.

as far as medical study is concerned ,one can complete it in many years. its a rule that once admitted in one college cannot get admission in another. but one can complete his mbbs in many years .i know graduates who have done mbbs in 25 years.no one can remove one from a medical college so easily.

3 idiots story is good one but that means when one starts his career. but once you are in ,put your efforts and pray to God.don't be a loser at such stage.you have to face the reality and face it like a champ. your parents have put their confidence and hopes on you ,don't let them down.face it ,make efforts and one day you will be succesful.
no offense meant to anyone though
@ slazenger
you created a really terrible situation.i don't agree with you.why you left mbbs?were you in fatima memorial?

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Reality is something you rise above.

Slazenger,
Why did you leave MBBS? Although many people would wonder and ask why you created such a misery for yourself, I can understand your position. One of my senior cousins who was an exceptionally bright student during the period of his high school time, did his matric with A+, got admission to GCU Lahore, did his FSc Pre-Engineering following the general and established trends, could not score as much in FSc as he did in SSC. Anyhow he managed to get admission in UET in BSc Engineering, stayed there for two semesters and ended up with failing in Four couses and he desperately left the university. Later, he joined ULC at PU and you know he got gold medals in three law subjects there. It was lack of interest in mathematics and engineering that was hampering his ability to rise and shine.

So, the bottom line is every student can't be successful in every field. I strongly reject this opinion that one must believe in equality abilities -- no , one may succeed in one arena but another field may be totally foreign for him.