Indian doctor in Texas killed by falling tree in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Laila Jiwani, 46, of Plano, Texas, died after part of a tree fell due to high winds and struck her at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee last Thursday.

The accident occurred on the Porter Creek Trail, according to Mike Litterst, assistant regional director of communications for the National Park Service Southeast Region.

Her husband, Taufiq Jiwani, said Jiwani died ‘immediately upon the severity of the impact.’

The couple was hiking in the park with their three sons. One of the sons, Jibran, 6, was also injured by the tree, which broke his leg in two places and caused superficial head injuries.

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.

‘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’

Jibran was airlifted to the UT Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, according to Litterst.

‘As the boys and I figure what to do next, please keep us in your prayers and allow us patience to respond,; Taufiq Jiwani wrote on Facebook. ‘We appreciate the kind thoughts and generosity, we are still processing what all just happened.’