About The Author
Dr Sneh. Bhargava, born in 1930, is one of the first Indian women to qualify as a radiologist, She was the very first and, so far, only woman to head AIIMS in its decades-long history. On her first day on the job as AIIMS director, in 1984, Dr Bhargava had to deal with a monumental crisis: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had been shot and was brought to AIIMS. In this book, we get a riveting first-hand account of this harrowing story and other gripping tales from the annals of medicine. Dr Bhargava was in the room when the invention of the CT scanner was announced in the US in the early 1970s. It was she who convinced the higher-ups in the Indian government to bring the CT scanner to India. Up until that point, the only way to look inside a patient's body was to do an X-ray or to cut them open. This book is chock-full of intriguing stories from a bygone era from the time radium needles, used to treat cancers, mysteriously went missing from Lady Hardinge Medical College to when Dr Bhargava diagnosed a sitting president with lung cancer using only an X-ray image. After she retired from AIIMS in 1990, Dr Bhargava went on to play a pivotal role in the establishment of two top hospitals in New Delhi. She was forced into retirement in her 90s, when COVID-19 regulations meant she could no longer go into the hospitals for work. She used the newly acquired free time to write this frank and candid book, one of the best memoirs from a pioneer of Indian medicine. This is not just the story of her extraordinary life but is, equally, the story of the medical profession in post-Independence India, and an illustration of what it means to truly live a life of service.
Foreword
I deem it a great privilege to have been asked to write a foreword for a memoir by Professor Sneh Bhargava, one of the icons of post-Independence India, who has spent her life pursuing her vision of bringing world-class technology to the poorest of Indians. Sneh is the only woman to hold the highest position of the premier medical institute of the country director of AIIMS in New Delhi and remains the only woman to have held that post in AIIMS's long history. She pioneered the advent of radiology in India and is known in the entire medical community for her unparalleled contribution to medicine. It is a contribution that has inspired more than one generation of medical students who looked up to her not only for her expertise but also for her moral integrity, principled conduct, exacting standards and refusal to compromise on patient care. Her tenure at AIIMS left an indelible mark on medicine because she trained and mentored generations of radiologists who went on to work across India to help diagnose illnesses. Sneh is an icon in the areas of medicine, medical education and medical research. These three pillars were identified by our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and promoted by our first health minister, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, as the ideals for the newly established AIIMS in New Delhi. Sneh fervently made them her life's mission. It has been a matter of great pride for me to have been counted as one of her friends for over 60 years. Our acquaintance began at Irwin Hospital in the 1950s and progressed as colleagues at AIIMS since 1965, where we worked together on our common goal of making AIIMS a national centre of excellence, particularly in the field of neuroradiology. She took the radiology department of AIIMS when it was nothing and turned it into the best radiology department in the country. We collaborated to develop neuroradiology as one area of her famous radiology department and worked together on professional excellence and research. Some of our publications, on tuberculosis (TB) of the nervous system, for example, are globally recognized. Sneh's qualities defy easy description because there are so many: outstanding skills as a radiologist; superb administrator who knew how to make a hospital run well; one of the best diagnosticians of her time, head and shoulders above her peers, who could take one look at a plain image and make a diagnosis, outdoing even the clinician; a kind and compassionate person who always held herself personally and professionally to a very exacting standard of integrity and probity; and a wonderfully vibrant and vivacious woman who loves life, basks in the affection of a devoted husband, a large family and circle of friends, and never misses an opportunity to dance and party! Sneh's journey to achieving iconic status can be traced back to her upbringing as a little girl in a highly respected and wealthy family of legal luminaries, deeply imbued with traditional culture, in pre-Independence Punjab.
About The Book
This is the story of DR SNEH BHARGAVA, a legend in Indian medicine. The first and, so far, only woman to have headed AIIMS. A pathbreaking radiologist, she was instrumental in bringing the CT scanner and ultrasound to India. After retiring as director of AIIMS, she played a pivotal role in the setting up of two top hospitals in New Delhi. Frank and gripping, her memoirs tell the fascinating story of a pioneer in the field of medicine.
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