Kamrul Islam: A doctor who has won the hearts of the general people

Free medical care and consultancy, year after year – the words may sound like fantasy but in reality, it is a benevolence that is being offered by many. One of these people is Dr Kamrul Islam, who has been winning the hearts of people across the country with his compassion. He has been performing kidney transplants free of cost for the last decade, along with providing his patients follow-up services.

Establishing a kidney hospital by his own initiative

After retiring as an assistant professor of the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology in 2011, Dr Kamrul Islam took personal initiative to establish CKD & Urology Hospital. He had dreamt of buying a car with the money saved from his days of government service, but instead, he spent the money on a dialysis machine. He also took assistance from his friends to get CKD off the ground.

The institution has now become a place of trust and affection for kidney patients across the country. Kidney transplant procedures here are carried out at the small cost of two lakh and ten thousand takas only. Dr Kamrul Islam charges no money for this complicated procedure. They even provide follow-up care free of charge for patients for several months after the procedure.

Professor Kamrul and his team have transplanted almost one thousand kidneys so far, with a success rate of 96 percent. Last year, when the Coronavirus pandemic brought healthcare to a standstill, Kamrul Islam and his associates still managed to transplants almost 250 kidneys. All but three of those patients are now living healthy lives.

Photo: Collected

The story of a mother who had lost her husband

During the liberation war, Kamrul Islam's father Aminul Islam worked at Paksey Sugarcrop Research Institute. He was killed by Rajakars for helping local freedom fighters. After the death of their father, the responsibility of taking care of the children fell squarely on the shoulders of the mother.

The widowed SSC-pass mother took the resolve to start studying again so that she could take care of her children and stand up on her own two feet. Soon, she completed HSC and enrolled in Rajshahi University to study Sociology. She showed her merit by finishing first in her class to achieve a Master's degree and then joined Lalmatia Women's College in 1981 as a professor.

Among the four sons of Aminul and Rahima, the second one – Kamrul – was a prodigious talent. He finished his SSC from Chandraprabha Vidyapitha, Paksey in 1980, ranking 15th on the merit list. He then enrolled in Dhaka College and consequently ranked 10th on the merit list for his HSC exams. He completed his MBBS from Dhaka Medical College, and later went on to acquire FCPS (Surgery), FRCS (UK), MS (Urology) degrees.

Operating with skill during his professional career

In 1993, he joined the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology Hospital as a BCS (Health) cadre. He successfully performed a kidney transplant for the first time in 2007. It's interesting to note that, before taking the role of a kidney transplant surgeon, Kamrul Islam used to practice on the kidney of cattle during Eid-ul-Adha.

He said, "At first, I did not want to be a kidney transplant surgeon. But as the responsibility of a government institution fell on my shoulder, I was almost forced to become one. At first, we started with four machines to build a dialysis setup, and soon we had 30 patients who would regularly get the services. I performed a transplant for the first time on one of them, and once that was successful, the references kept on coming. Now, I regularly perform kidney transplants."

Achieving the Swadhinata Padak in medicine

The story of Kamrul Islam's humanitarian activities spread across the country at the tail end of last year. Since then, he has been in the limelight. Thousands of people have received complicated kidney related treatment either free of cost or at nominal cost, and are now living healthy lives. His work has also received praise in government circles. As a recognition of the ray of hope that he has shown in the private medical sector with his kidney transplants, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has selected him in the medicine sector as the recipient of the highest civilian award in the country – the Swadhinata Padak 2022.

By Farid Uddin Rony
Translated by Azmin Azran