Dr. Kafeel Khan took to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday and posted a video, thanking the makers of Jawan for depicting an incident similar to the one he encountered. He also clarified that he hasn’t watched the film yet, but has been getting messages and wishes about the same since the release.
Kafeel penned down in Hindi, “I haven’t seen Jawan but people have been messaging me saying they missed you (namaste emoji) There is a lot of difference between the film world and real life. The culprits in the army, health minister etc. get punished But here I and those 81 families are still wandering for justice (sad and prayer emojis) Thank you @iamsrk sir and @Atlee_dir sir for raising the social issue (thumbs up emoji).”
Doctor and former instructor Dr. Kafeel worked at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur. He made every effort to alert the authorities to the situation when he learned that the government hospital’s oxygen supply had been turned off because of unpaid fees. When they were unable to deliver, he was able to buy oxygen on his own dime. However, 63 children died of acute encephalitis syndrome in the interim. Later, the Uttar Pradesh government refuted the claim that there was an oxygen shortage and instead imprisoned Kafeel for neglect of duty.
A book by Dr. Kafeel Khan was also published in 2021. The happenings of the Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A Doctor’s Memory of a Deadly Medical Crisis were described in detail.
