Dr Kafeel Khan has come a long way. From a hero lauded for providing oxygen to children at the BRD Medical College during an extreme shortage in the oxygen supply in 2017, he now finds himself dismissed from service on what are widely regarded as flimsy charges. Dr Khan explains to NewsClick his torturous quest for justice, how prison time changed him, and his new role as a doctor-activist.
In August 2017, around 100 children died in a few short days in BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, during a disruption in medical oxygen supplies. This year, the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic claimed more lives due to oxygen shortages. But the Centre denies that oxygen supplies caused deaths, just like the Uttar Pradesh government had in 2017—enquiry committees after the BRD tragedy said the deaths were not due to oxygen shortage. What were your thoughts when there were oxygen shortages during the pandemic?
It was like déjà vu for me. What I witnessed over April-May 2021, when the whole country was suffering due to a shortage of oxygen, was a repetition of what I had seen at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur on 10 August 2017. Then health minister subsequently said that not a single death happened in Gorakhpur [on that date] due to oxygen shortage. This year, during the monsoon session of Parliament, our Minister of State for Health [Bharati Pravin Pawar] made a similar claim. She informed the
— source newsclick.in | 03 Dec 2021