Five months after Vaibhav Duggal, a third-year medical student at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, committed suicide, his parents in India broke silence and accused the university authorities of clear bias which they alleged pushed Vaibhav to take the decision to end his life. They said Vaibhav was declared guilty of breach of professionalism but no due process was followed and since the complaint came from a female patient, the university authorities took her side and did not listen to Duggal’s side of the story. A female patient complained that she felt uncomfortable when she came for an STD test, as Vaibhav was on duty at the OB/GYN clinic. In a written complaint, she wrote to the university authorities that Vaibhav asked her about the details of her relationship.

‘Would your boyfriend get mad at me if…’

The female patient alleged that Vaibhav told her that she had nice abs and used the phrase “would your boyfriend get mad at me if…” during the medical examination. She said Vaibhav requested to follow her on Instagram and sent messages that made her feel uncomfortable. The incident took place in early July 2025 and Vaibhav was removed from any clinic duty until August. Vaibhav ended his life on July 29. Vaibhav’s parents said he was an exceptional student, a summa cum laude graduate from Texas A&M, with a 4.0 GPA. “They did not dig into the complaints to see what really happened…he was a student at that time and did what he was taught,” the parents said, questioning why Vaibhav was allowed to interact with a patient.“There are a lot of people in the email thread. But not a single person stepped up and tried to find out exactly what happened. Nobody did their job. Nobody spoke to Vaibhav. If this happens to my son, this can happen to everyone,” Vaibhav’s mother said in a YouTube video they issued.