Dr. Subhas Mukherjee never got recognition in his lifetime
In the year 1978, on the month of July 25, Dr. Patrick Christopher Steptoe, Dr. Robert Geoffrey Edwards, and Jean Marian Purdy (A British Nurse) got recognition for pioneering the first in vitro fertilization experiment (IVF) in England. The name of the baby was given Louise Joy Brown. Just 67 days later, on October 3, 1978, Dr. Subhash Mukherjee at Kolkata in India got success for India and Asia’s first test-tube baby or in vitro fertilization (IVF). But, instead of recognition, he got insulted and harassed. He was never given recognition from his workplace, instead, he was given a kind of solitary confinement in society as well.
The first part of the story:
June 19, 1981. The story was almost 40 years ago. Teacher Mrs. Namita Mukherjee was returning from her school. She lived with her doctor husband in a six-storey flat on Southern Avenue in Kolkata.
But, Mrs. Namita was not at all ready for what she saw after opening the door of the flat. Her husband’s body hanging from the ceiling! She got a suicide note, “I can’t wait to die of a heart attack,” it said.
Who was that doctor? Let us present the description:
A silent revolution took place in Bengal some 40 years ago! The mastermind of that revolution was the doctor named Dr. Subhas Mukherjee. He is the father of India and Asia’s first test-tube baby or IVF (in vitro fertilization). He was born on January 17, 1931, in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. He spent his student life at Scottish Church College of Kolkata.
He later obtained his MBBS degree from Calcutta National Medical College in 1955. In the same year, he obtained an honorary degree in Physiology from Calcutta University.
He obtained his first Ph.D. degree in Reproductive Physiology in 1958 from Rajabazar Science College, Kolkata. After that, he received his second Ph.D. degree in 1967 by discovering a new method of measuring luteinizing hormone from The University of Edinburgh, UK.
He then joined the Nilratan Sarkar Medical College in Calcutta as a professor. The research on the test-tube baby was in full swing in various laboratories around the world at that time.
Dr. Mukherjee did not have any sophisticated equipment or standard laboratory. It was just talent and indomitable zeal to discover something new. He was assisted by Cryobiologist Dr. Sunit Mukherjee and Gynecologist Dr. Saroj Kanti Bhattacharya. Subhas Mukherjee gradually built the laboratory at Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital for long nine years from 1967 to 1976. He always used to stay there addicted to creating a groundbreaking discovery.
Dr. Subhash Mukherjee was a devoted researcher. Who turned his flat into a laboratory. He ignored his greed for private practice easily. He has given up the eternal fascination with child happiness by thinking that it could disrupt his research.
A few days later, he was acquainted with an Agarwal couple of an aristocratic Marwari family. They were still childless 12 years after their marriage. However, after a few days of treatment, Mrs. Bela Agarwal could not get pregnant. On examination, Dr. Subhas Mukherjee saw that both the fallopian tubes of Mrs. Bela Agarwal were blocked. Then he wanted to apply his new research, the test tube baby, to the couple.
On October 3, 1978, Dr. Subhas Mukherjee got success just before the Durga puja. Kanupriya Agarwal was born; her name was given as “Durga”. Kanupriya Agarwal (Durga) was the first test-tube-born child in Asia and India and the second in the world. The first test-tube baby Lewis Joy Brown was born in England just 67 days ago (25 July 1978).
Click to read more on https://www.bigumbrella.co.in/dr-subhas-mukherjee-never-got-recognition-in-his-lifetime/
