BENGALURU: Dr Kafeel Khan, former assistant lecturer at BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur, and one of the accused in the Gorakhpur Hospital tragedy, on Monday launched his book on the events preceding and succeeding the tragedy. He said that though access to healthcare was worse in North India, comparing Karnataka to northern states’ statistics is no reason to be happy.
“Compared to Uttar Pradesh’s infant mortality rate (IMR) of around 50 per 1,000 births, Karnataka’s is 24. But compared to Kerala’s statistics, Karnataka is doing much worse as Kerala’s IMR is 6,” said the doctor, who has been acquitted of all charges against him. The doctor, who had been terminated from his post at the college in November after being repeatedly suspended by the UP government, has undertaken a nation-wide tour to promote and launch his book.
‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’ highlights the doctor’s experiences during the tragedy as one of the vilified, the events preceding the tragedy, as well as how he was treated afterwards. The book had been published by Pan MacMillan, a British publisher, because Khan said that Indian publishers had refused to publish it unless he omitted parts of the book on the government.
“The mainstream media had built me up, praising me as a messiah and a hero, and less than 48 hours later, I was being attacked and accused, many senior journalists refused to do their own research and went by what was being spread on social media. Some called me the vice-principal, the superintendent of the college, in reality, I was the junior-most doctor,” he said. On the book, he said he had written on the lines of a film or novel. “I’ve written it with my entire heart, so that the reader can experience what I experienced, the feeling of trying to save those children, the feeling of wrath from the government, and of going to prison,” he said.
The doctor is currently campaigning for the right to healthcare. During the launch, he said that the distribution of healthcare facilities in Karnataka, as well as all Indian states, was poor. “Bengaluru may have the best in terms of tertiary care, advanced care, and all kinds of healthcare, but is that the same in rural areas in Karnataka?” he asked. He is hopeful that the right to healthcare is passed, saying that everyone must have free healthcare, accessible at least within 5-10 km.