Indira Gandhi’s final moments through the eyes of a pioneering woman doctor

Not a lot about Sneh Bhargava’s life appears extraordinary.

In 1984, she grew to become the primary lady to helm the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) within the capital Delhi – one of many nation’s prime medical establishments – and in its nearly 70-year historical past, stays the one lady to have executed so.

At 90, Dr Bhargava – one among India’s pioneering radiologists – started writing her memoir, The Lady Who Ran AIIMS, which was printed earlier this month, and at 95, continues to stay an lively member within the medical group.

From selecting radiology when it was nonetheless rising in Nineteen Forties India to turning into one among its most well-known practitioners, Dr Bhargava’s legacy is nothing in need of extraordinary.

Not in contrast to her first day on the job as director-to-be of AIIMS, which was nothing in need of a trial by fireplace.

It was the morning of 31 October 1984, and a gathering was underneath method on the hospital to verify her appointment after India’s then prime minister Indira Gandhi had chosen her for the function.

Dr Bhargava was not a part of the assembly, however was in her workplace reviewing medical instances for the day. She recollects in her memoir listening to a colleague frantically name out to her, asking her to hurry to the casualty ward.

There, mendacity on a gurney was the very lady who had chosen Dr Bhargava to move the hospital – Indira Gandhi. Her saffron sari was drenched in blood and she or he had no pulse.

“On the time, I did not give attention to it being the prime minister who was mendacity in entrance of me,” Dr Bhargava instructed the BBC. “My first ideas have been that we had to assist her and in addition shield her from additional hurt,” she stated.

Dr Bhargava was frightened {that a} mob would storm the casualty ward, as a big crowd had already begun gathering exterior the hospital.

Information started to trickle out: Gandhi had been shot by two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for Operation Blue Star, the navy raid on Amritsar’s Golden Temple in June to flush out militants.

Gandhi’s assassination sparked one of many deadliest riots India has seen, the beginnings of which Dr Bhargava started listening to about as she hastened to shift the prime minister to one of many constructing’s prime flooring.

There, within the working theatre, a Sikh physician fled the room the minute he heard how Gandhi had died.

The information of her loss of life needed to be saved underneath wraps till her son, Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as prime minister.

“Till then, our job, for the following 4 hours, was to maintain up the charade that we have been attempting to avoid wasting her life, when actually she was useless when she was delivered to AIIMS,” Dr Bhargava writes.

She additionally described the harrowing technique of embalming the prime minister’s physique, which might lie in state within the capital for 2 days earlier than cremation.

“The embalming chemical, once we injected it into totally different most important arteries, saved oozing out,” Dr Bhargava writes. A ballistic report would later reveal that over three dozen bullets had punctured Gandhi’s physique.

However this wasn’t the one outstanding episode in Dr Bhargava’s lengthy and illustrious profession at AIIMS.

Within the guide she shares fascinating anecdotes of her interactions with different distinguished politicians, together with India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

She additionally recollects Sonia Gandhi bringing her son, a younger Rahul to AIIMS after an arrow grazed his head whereas he was enjoying.

“Sonia Gandhi instructed me that she needed to carry Rahul to us as a result of Rajiv (her husband) was assembly the King of Jordan and the latter had given him a flowery automobile as a present, which her husband was eager to drive,” she writes within the guide.

Rajiv Gandhi needed to drive Rahul to AIIMS himself, with out safety, as a shock – however Dr Bhargava firmly stopped him, citing security considerations.

However not each day was as thrilling.

Dr Bhargava recollects political stress, together with an MP who threatened her for not choosing his son-in-law for a job at AIIMS.

On one other event, two prime politicians, together with the federal well being secretary, tried to handpick the AIIMS dean – although the choice was hers alone.

Dr Bhargava says she stood agency towards stress, all the time prioritising affected person care. She labored to determine radiology as a core a part of prognosis and therapy at AIIMS.

When Dr Bhargava joined within the Nineteen Sixties, AIIMS had solely fundamental imaging instruments. She educated colleagues to learn refined indicators in black-and-white X-rays, all the time in context with the affected person’s historical past. She later pushed for higher tools, serving to construct one among India’s main radiology departments.

Dr Bhargava was all the time drawn to creating a distinction.

Born in 1930 into an prosperous household in Lahore in undivided India, as a baby she cherished enjoying physician to her dolls and siblings. Through the partition of India and Pakistan, Dr Bhargava’s household fled to India and later, she would go to refugee camps along with her father to assist individuals.

At a time when few Indian girls pursued larger training, Dr Bhargava studied radiology in London – the one lady in each her class and hospital division.

She returned to India within the Nineteen Fifties after listening to from her mentor that the nation was in want of expert radiologists.

Dr Bhargava typically credit her household, and her husband’s liberal-mindedness for serving to her obtain her desires, and she or he hopes different Indian girls discover the identical assist.

“It begins from childhood,” she says.

“Dad and mom ought to assist their daughters the identical method they assist their sons. Solely then will they have the ability to break glass ceilings and attain for the celebrities.”

Observe BBC Information India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.