An award-winning Johns Hopkins rheumatologist was killed over the weekend in a hit-and-run involving three vehicles in Maryland.
Dr Nadia Dominique Morgan, 35, was killed late Saturday night, according to a statement from the Baltimore County Police.
Police said Sunday that 31-year-old Jason William Hines has been charged in connection with the fatal hit-and-run.
Award-winning Johns Hopkins rheumatologist, Nadia Dominique Morgan (pictured), 35, was killed Saturday night in a hit-and-run involving three vehicles in Maryland
According to a police statement, Morgan was driving south through an intersection on a green light when a car heading east struck her, forcing it into a third vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene
Police said Sunday that 31-year-old Jason William Hines has been charged in connection with the fatal hit-and-run. Firefighters are seen putting out the flames that engulfed Morgan’s car
According to the release, Morgan was driving south through an intersection on a green light when a car heading east struck her, forcing it into a third vehicle.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say Hines crashed into a fire hydrant and fled the scene on foot as Morgan’s car became engulfed in flames.
Scene photos showed firefighters working to put out the fire shortly after the crash.
It’s unclear whether he has a lawyer. Hines is being held at the Baltimore County Department of Corrections. He was denied bail.
The driver and passenger in the third vehicle, the Acura MDX, both refused any medical treatment.
Morgan was from Jamaica and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center.
‘We are deeply saddened by the devastating news about Dr. Nadia Morgan,’ Ken Willis, a Johns Hopkins Medicine spokesman, said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘Her death is an enormous loss to the entire Johns Hopkins Medicine family, and to the many patients and colleagues who benefited from her skills and commitment.
‘She was an extraordinarily warm, talented and promising member of our community who gave so much to everyone around her,’ Willis added.
In a video shared by Johns Hopkins, Nadia said ‘it was a dream come true’ for her to work with the research facility.
‘I really love interacting with my patients,’ she says in the promotional video.
‘It allows you the chance to get to know them, to build a rapport, to build trust as you follow them in their journey towards helping to get them better.’
Morgan’s father, Alton Morgan, told The Baltimore Sun that his daughter moved to the US in 2010 to do her residency at SUNY Downstate.
Alton, who is a real estate attorney in Jamaica, said his daughter was an ‘exceptional person’.
Her aunt, Althea Morgan-Belcher, told the newspaper that Dr Morgan visited her family at least three times a year.
Morgan was from Jamaica and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center. In 2016, she received the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Fellow Award
Dr Morgan and her sister, Dionne were planning to fly back on Friday for the holidays.
‘She was very nice, very intelligent, loved her family immensely, and was home every chance she got,’ Morgan-Belcher told The Baltimore Sun.
Her other aunt, Audrey McIntosh, called her niece ‘an angel in the form of a human being’.
Dr Morgan received her MBBS degree at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.
Morgan then completed her internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center; where she served an additional year as chief resident, according to her profile on the center’s website.
Subsequently, Morgan completed fellowship training in rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University and obtained the Masters of Health Science (MHS) in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In 2016, she received the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Fellow Award.
After she completed her fellowship training, Morgan joined the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center as full-time faculty.
Her primary research interest was in factors ‘contributing to the severe fibrotic manifestations of systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) in populations of African ancestry’, her biography says.
According to her bio, Morgan was also a member of the American College of Rheumatology and had been serving a three-year term on the college’s Registries and Health Information Technology committee.
Friends and family paid tribute to the successful doctor on social media after news of her death.
Wes Linda said he was ‘absolutely crushed’ by the news.
‘Dr. Morgan was a friend and one of the brightest people I’ve ever known. The world has lost a true gem. One of the best people I’ve had the pleasure to work with over the years. Rest in Peace, Nadia. You will be greatly missed.’
ICHS Class of ’99 posted on their Facebook group that ‘one of our sisters has fallen’.
‘Dr. Nadia Morgan was doing big things as an Instructor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. R.I.P phenomenal woman. #ICHS #Classof99,’ they wrote.
Diane Taylor added: ‘Such a beautiful and promising soul, taken away by a selfish and careless person, may her soul RIP and God will give her family the to cope as they cherish her wonderful memories.’