Kafeel Khan recounts the hospital horror, witch-hunt

The 300-page book recounts the tale of horror wherein he was turned from a hero to a villain, and spent nine months in jail.

NT | Correspondent

Bengaluru: Between August 10 and 13, 2017, around 70 newborns died in BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, the home constituency of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Reason: The oxygen supplier, namely Pushpa Sales had stopped the supply of piped oxygen due to outstanding arrears of over Rs 78 lakh after several warnings. Dr Kafeel Khan, an assistant lecturer in the Pediatric Department of the College fought a heroic battle and organized 500 cylinders, all at his own expense, to save as many lives as possible.

He requested the Sashastra Seema Bal for its trucks to carry the cylinder to the hospital. Khan was hailed as a hero for his services and parents of suffering kids fell at his feet.

But he was suspended by the UP Government ‘for dereliction of duty’ on August 22 and was arrested after a court issued a non-bailable warrant. The resident doctors’ association of AIIMS condemned his arrest and said he was being made a scapegoat.

On April 25, 2018, Khan was released on bail after nine months in prison. The court ruled that there was no evidence of medical negligence on his part. On September 27, 2019, Khan was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court of all charges pertaining to death of kids in BRD Hospital. Dr Kafeel Khan, who holds a MBBS and MD in Pediatrics degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal in Karnataka, has penned the entire saga in his book titled The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Tragedy, published by Pan Macmillan Publishing India. Khan launched the book in Bengaluru on Monday.

The 300-page book recounts the tale of horror wherein he was turned from a hero to a villain and documents the red tape in the Health Department in Uttar Pradesh, Hospitals and prisons where he spent nearly nine months. Although he was only an assistant lecturer and was completing his first year of probation, the media made him superintendent and vice principal (there was no such post in the hospital).

Speaking to media persons, Khan said ‘Godi media’ (a newly coined term for pliant media houses) which lauded his services for a brief period, began to brand him ‘sattar bachchon ka qatil’ (killer of 70 kids) as the official machinery turned him into a scapegoat. Someone even called him ‘cylinder chor’ (cylinder thief).

Curiously, the UP government denied that any death had occurred due to oxygen shortage. The then Health Minister of UP had said, Bachche to is season mein har saal marte hi hain (Children do die in this season every year), an insensitive remark that caused an outcry from civil society groups. Khan said he plans to get the book translated and published in other Indian languages, primarily in Hindi.