Humans Of AFMC

For being a football devotee from my early school days, never did I imagine that one day I would have to spend perfect football weather afternoons stuck at AFMC lecture gallery! I had never been the nerd as AFMC turned me out to be back in 1999! This bleak incident is one of the many that I experienced in early days of Armed Forces Medical College, the alma mater I chose to attend after completing S.S.C from BAF Shaheen School and H.S.C from Notre Dame College.

Whenever my close buddies have wondered about my motivation behind choosing AFMC instead of getting admitted to Rangpur Medical College or to Pharmacy Dept. of DU or Mechanical Engineering in BUET; my answer has always been constant : I wanted my parents to be happy and proud. It also seemed obvious to become one of the pioneers of an institute built on the foundation of trust and reliability.

We, the first batch of AFMC, sailed on our ship with towering dreams which undoubtedly shattered like glass within first 6 months. Never thought a medical cadet’s life could be so pathetically controlled! As a distraction from the burden of being restrained in dorm after sunset, we created our own ground of mirth along the corridors of our rooms. Sometimes that was by singing our hearts out at night or by playing cricket with make-shift bat and ball, in between these and long classes - we made our boring college life an interesting one.

All 52 of us, we were like parallel lines with our eccentricities and would have never crossed each other if AFMC life hadn’t happened. But that didn’t stop us from eventually developing a formidable bond. From playing chess, carom, football to encountering notable inspirational personalities like Ahsan Sir, Sharmin Ma’am, Mobin Sir, Zoinul Sir, Ashraf Sir, Latif Sir, Masroor Sir, Liza Madam, Mamun Mustafa Sir - almost every memory is written with an indelible ink. My best friend, Rowshon was always a lofty support throughout our time together in AFMC.

After completing my MBBS in 2004 and internship in 2005, I started my career in a pretty much traditional way - completed FCPS part 1 in Medicine and was admitted to classes of MD Internal Medicine in 2007. Who knew my destiny was not there in Bangladesh !

My adventurous life took me to Africa in 2008. Started off in Liberia as a doctor of International Medical Corps, one of the largest humanitarian INGOs and soon found myself managing health projects and programmes. Later on, I served UN Peace Keeping mission ( MONUSCO) in D R Congo, UNDP South Africa ( Lesotho) and in a Zambian mine (Copper and Gold mines) in different capacities. In between international assignments, I also served in icddr,b and Chevron (Oil and Gas) in Bangladesh for a short while. In 2018, I moved to England along with my family and started working there as an SHO in Medicine. Recently I have entered to GP training scheme to become a GP consultant. Don’t get surprised seeing me serving in cruise ship / Aero Medical Team in upcoming days ! Work is fun - better try to make living out of fun.

To sell myself in oversea job market, I secured a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Health ( DTM&H) and a Joint Masters in Int. Humanitarian Action ( University College Dublin and Uppsala University, Sweden) along with the prestigious Erusmus Mundus Scholarship. I can tell you one thing - none of the above could beat my MBBS degree from AFMC !

The unique quality that makes the national health system of England (NHS) stand out is ‘accountability’; a health care professional here will always be liable for his designated responsibility. Unlike the popular misconception, clinical management and knowledge of doctors here is quite identical to the one in our country; what’s different is the holistic approach of providing treatment to a patient. Doctors in society are treated in a far better way and are recognised and dignified with social security and respect.

My philanthropic self, took an initiative of helping out home-based orphans to prevent their dropping out from schools owing to the financial crisis. That initiative materialized into what ‘ORPHANSBD’ is today. By the grace of Almighty and with contributions from lots of friends and well-wishers, we have come a long way. Currently we are providing about 350 kids with yearly allowance. In OrphansBD, we aspire to reach bigger platforms so that we can have more solid outcome like - helping out undergrad students with tuition fees or monthly allowance, establishing an institute for technical studies etc.

Inspired by OrphansBd, Another of my ongoing project is called “Noyontara”- a school for the child labours, based in Kochukhet, Dhaka. Here we provide education and technical teaching in exchange of mid day meal.
“Kiddie Rocks” is another wonderful initiative I am proud of. It is a school and therapy centre for children with autism spectrum disorders, based in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

Recently, I have teamed up with a few web developers to create an artificial intelligence (A.I) based personal health record management application where mass people can store and access their personal medical records named - “Shastho-Boi”.

In light of this pandemic, I actualized an insight from my experience of battling with COVID-19, that it’s essential to protect yourself first, only then you can serve others. My time in the hospital after being extubated, left me with vivid memories of some of the pleasant and some of the horrid hallucinations ; which was an intriguing experience. After coming back from the edge of life, it wasn’t easy to rehabilitate myself through the physical and emotional fragility and my advice to all would be to consider this aspect with importance when dealing with a COVID patient.

Now this might come across your mind, have I ever regretted this profession?
Yes, I have, many times. But I have also been grateful just as many times.

A piece of wisdom I wish to share is that - career, academics, successes are not everything that your life should revolve around. Don’t make your life confined to jobs and qualifications; there is a world to explore outside that, enjoy it to the fullest. Try to help others wherever possible, travel a lot and keep yourself and your close people happy.

Rahat
AFMC 01
MC 48