North Texas pediatrician killed by falling tree while hiking with family; son survives
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Hospital officials expressed their sorrow Monday for a North Texas pediatrician who was killed last week when a tree fell on her while she was hiking with her family in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee.
Laila Jiwani, 42, of Plano, a doctor with Cook Children’s, died Thursday when she was struck by a tree on Porter Creek Trail at the park. Her 6-year-old son suffered a broken leg, according to news reports.
High winds caused the tree to fall, according to a park spokesperson.
Jiwani’s husband, Taufiq Jiwani, wrote in a Facebook post that doctors said his wife saved their son by taking the brunt of the impact, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The post has since been deleted.
“We are greatly saddened by the death of Dr. Laila Jiwani,” Britt Nelson, president of Cook Children’s Physician Network, said in a statement Monday. “She was beloved by her patients, families as well as her coworkers. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”
Jiwani and her husband were hiking in the park with their three sons at the time.
A man who answered the telephone at the Jiwani home Monday declined to comment.
Jiwani received her medical education at New York University School of Medicine and was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.
She had been a doctor with Cook Children’s since 2007.
Jiwani had worked at Cook Children’s Pediatrics Lewisville/Castle Hills and at Cook Children’s Neighborhood Clinic/Northside in Fort Worth.
Her funeral is Wednesday in Dallas.
This story was originally published December 31, 2018 at 1:42 PM with the headline "North Texas pediatrician killed by falling tree while hiking with family; son survives."
