The mother and brother of murdered cardiologist, Dr Brian McGovern, are flying in to Boston from Dublin today to share their condolences with his American wife.
Dr McGovern, from Sutton in Dublin, was shot dead by a laboratory worker, Colleen P. Mitchell, in the cardiology section of Massachusetts General Hospital on Tuesday. Ms Mitchell then committed suicide.
Dr David Keane, a Dublin doctor who worked with Dr McGovern in Massachusetts General, said that he was deeply loved by everyone who knew him.
"The entire hospital is stunned. He was a deeply compassionate man in so many ways. When he was in Belvedere College in Dublin, he volunteered to teach underprivileged children how to read and write. He loved Irish literature and, most of all, he loved his family, he lived for them," he said.
Dr Keane, who has an office next to Dr McGovern's in the hospital, said that neither he nor Dr McGovern knew Colleen Mitchell.
"She was very new to the hospital. There was nothing there to indicate anything wrong but I didn't know her," he said.
Police have yet to establish a motive for the killing.
Relatives and neighbours of Colleen P. Mitchell (51) told the Boston media that she was outgoing and showed no signs of mental illness or depression.
A police spokeswoman, Mary Ellen Burns, said that investigators were satisfied that nobody else was involved in the shooting.
Dr McGovern's brother, an Irish lawyer, and his mother, were due to arrive in Boston today.
Dr McGovern had recently returned from a trip to Ecuador with his wife Anne, also a doctor, and their two daughters.
"They meant everything to him. He was a devoted father and very happily married," Dr Keane said.
Dr Keane also praised Dr McGovern's long service in cardiology and said that he had addressed the 50th anniversary meeting of the Irish Cardiac Society two years ago.
"I saw him the night before the shooting. He was working long hours, as usual. He had a phenomenal relationship with his patients and would ring them at all hours to check how they were doing," he said.
Dr McGovern, a UCD medical graduate who trained in internal medicine at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, joined Massachusetts General Hospital in 1981, as a clinical and research fellow.
He completed fellowships at the hospital in cardiology and cardiac electro-physiology.
He had over 100 publications in medical journals. He was also chairman of the American Atrial Fibrillation Foundation.