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Slain woman was new doctor who graduated from UNLV

Updated April 18, 2023 - 7:19 pm

The woman who police say was killed by her husband in their west Las Vegas Valley home on Saturday was a doctor who was just beginning her career after recently graduating from UNLV’s medical school.

“She was on her way to what should have been a long and successful medical career,” said Marc Kahn, the Dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, in a statement.

Gwendoline Amsrala, 28, was identified Monday by the Clark County coroner’s office as the woman who was stabbed to death in a west Las Vegas Valley house on Saturday morning.

UNLV spokesperson Francis McCabe confirmed that Dr. Amsrala graduated from the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV in 2022.

A Review-Journal photo from 2018 shows a smiling Amsrala receiving her white coat in a ceremony at the Artemus Ham Concert Hall on the campus of UNLV on August 24, 2018. The white coat ceremony is a rite of passage for incoming medical students and is meant to instill in them the professional ethics they’ll need in their careers.

A GoFundMe has also been set up to help Amsrala’s family with funeral and memorial expenses, GoFundMe spokesperson Alex White said in an email statement. As of Tuesday afternoon the GoFundMe, which had an initial goal of $10,000, had raised $21,765 from 276 donors.

“The community has raised more than $20,000 in just 24 hours for the family,” White said in the email.

According to a statement released Sunday by the Metropolitan Police Department, Amsrala’s husband, Shiva Gummi, 33, fatally stabbed Amsrala, although police didn’t identify her by name. He then stabbed himself in a suicide attempt but survived and called police.

Officers responded shortly after 8:15 a.m. to the house in the 1300 block of Torington Drive, near Torrey Pines Drive and Vegas Drive. Amsrala was pronounced dead at the scene. Gummi was taken to University Medical Center in critical condition.

“During her time at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, Gwen Amsrala was an excellent medical student, active in research, and very well liked by her peers,” Kahn said in his statement. “She graduated and received her MD degree in 2022, chose to stay in Las Vegas for residency, and was about to complete her first year of graduate medical education with UNLV’s department of internal medicine.”

Kahn said support and counseling were being made available to students and staff at the medical school.

“We are stunned and saddened by news of her passing and offer our deepest sympathies to Gwen’s family as well as her large circle of friends,” Kahn said. “Dr. Amsrala’s caring nature, passion to heal, and her commitment to serving Southern Nevada will not be forgotten.”

Gummi, who was booked in absentia into the Clark County Detention Center, was facing a charge of open murder with a deadly weapon.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.

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