Hertfordshire Doctor with long covid commits suicide in his mother’s car

Abhijeet Tavare, 27, was found slumped in the car by his doctor friends who went looking for him on the middle of the night.

A coroner heard that when his mother had returned to their home on London Road, Bushey, Herts, after her morning walk, only to realise something was wrong. She went into her son’s bedroom and found his suicide notes.

In a statement from Abhijeet’s GP which was read to the inquest, it was revealed that the son, known as Abhi to friends, had contracted Covid-19 in September 2020, which he initially recovered from, only for symptoms of Long-Covid to emerge.

The inquest in Hertford was told that he reported he was suffering from palpitations, difficulty sleeping, extreme fatigue, as well as cognitive decline caused by brain fog – the latter meant he could no longer work for the international management consulting company and moved back home with his mother.

He had already seen five different doctors and therapists for his physical and mental health issues, all to no avail. He was prescribed sleep medication by his GP and it was recorded in the inquest that no mention of self-harm or suicidal ideation was reported.

A statement from police constable Holly Edwards read: ‘Police received a phone call from Abhijeet’s sister-in-law, saying he wasn’t in his room and had left notes, saying he could no longer live with his illness and didn’t want to suffer anymore.

“His mum woke up and went for a walk. She got back and noticed he hadn’t left his bedroom. She opened his door and he wasn’t there. Then she found the letters and immediately called his sister-in-law, who then called police.”

Officers declared him a high-risk missing person and began a search after finding CCTV of where the car he was driving was last spotted. Meanwhile, his closest friends – all junior doctors – heard the news he was missing and formed a search party.

The inquest was told that a combination of police investigations and reports, as well as the friends’ use of iPhone tracking and bank transaction tracking, led them to an area where he was last believed to have been.

After the grim discovery in Chenies Hill, Rickmansworth, Herts, a post-mortem report on Abhi’s body revealed that the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning by inhalation. He was declared dead by paramedics more than 12 hours after he was first reported missing.

His brother, Aniket Tavare said: “He was my younger brother. He was a very happy and well-adjusted child. Our dad passed away when he was six years old. He was very sporty and he never let life get in his way.

“When Covid struck him, he stayed with my mum and worked from home. He felt fine for a little bit, but then he started rapidly declining. He was extremely frustrated by this. When I last saw him he was very different – we couldn’t really talk about anything as his life was on pause.

“There were no specific mental health concerns – we knew he was down, but that was more for his circumstances. I thought he would ride it out like every other challenge he faced in life. He will be missed by a lot of people.”

Concluding the inquest, assistant Hertfordshire coroner Jonathan Stevens said: “Abhi Tavare was an extremely talented man. He had been to Oxford University and had excelled.

“He had a very tight-knit group of friends. He was due to be best man at one of their weddings in the following year. He was an exceptionally talented person.

“He contracted long Covid and that presented him with a dramatic change to his life. He had seen numerous consultants to no avail. Once he was declared missing, the response from his friends was quite overwhelming.”

He recorded the death as suicide.