The Gorakhpur Hospital: Dr Kafeel Khan's memoir of his darkest hours
A convoluted system of disbursement of funds, unsurprisingly, resulted in suppliers dragging their feet or even baulking at supplying essential items like oxygen. This was one of the aspects that played a key role in the deaths of patients in BRD Medical College four years back. Dr Kafeel Khan, the man in the eye of that particular storm, blows the lid off the rot in the system in his memoir of those ill-fated days.
Liquid oxygen ran out at the state-run BRD Medical College’s Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur on the evening of August 10, 2017. Reportedly, over the next two days, more than 80 patients lost their lives, the majority of them children.
Dr Khan, an assistant professor in the college’s paediatrics department, found himself initially hailed as a hero for trying to source oxygen for the patients, and then branded as a villain. He was suspended, an FIR was lodged against him and he was jailed, all in short order. The media circus that ensued chronicled his rise and fall, and he tries to set the record straight through this book.
This is not an easy book to read. It brings home a host of unpalatable truths. How even after 75 years of Independence, certain basic rights like good universal healthcare remain out of reach for the poor and marginalised; the rot in the system that seems endemic; the all-pervasive corruption. And above all, the apathy and lack of accountability in people who are in positions of power and whose decisions, or lack thereof, are critical. There are two main parts to this book. One part deals with the events that unfolded in August 2017 and how the tragedy then played out. The other part has to do with Dr Khan’s seven months in jail.
The questions that haunt Dr Khan in the aftermath of the harrowing tragedy are bound to trouble the reader too. Why is it that it was a junior doctor who was running himself ragged trying to source oxygen and save lives? How is it that the people in senior positions were either missing in action or strangely apathetic in taking decisions at that critical time?
Dr Khan’s experience in jail is similar to others who have written about the same. In jail, all are equal but some are more equal than others, all goods and services come at a price, and survival depends on accepting the circumstances and forging friendships or alliances of sorts. The book is written in fairly simple prose with neat tables detailing the cast of characters and a timeline of events. The prologue gives us a brief glimpse into the doctor’s early life.
What shines through is Dr Khan’s courage in putting up a fight to clear his name and continue working. His compassion, empathy and determination to provide treatment to those who are deprived of it are equally commendable. The other important aspect that becomes clear from the reading of this book is that a malfunctioning system will at some point engulf all. If on that unfateful day it was mainly the underprivileged that paid with their lives, the same problems touched the middle class during the second Covid wave. It behooves us as citizens to force leaders to concentrate on things that matter like good quality healthcare, with the power of our votes. If we do not do so, we may well pay with our lives. That then, is the stark takeaway from this book.
The Gorakhpur Hospital
Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis
By: Kafeel Khan
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 300
Price: Rs 499