Meet Dr Sneh Bhargava, Trailblazing Radiologist & First Woman To Lead AIIMS

At 95, Dr Sneh Bhargava continues to read medical books and learn about new technological advancements. The doctor, who is still passionate about medicine just like her younger self, is more than just a doctor. She is the only woman who helmed the position of Director at AIIMS, the doctor who was not only present in the room in the USA in the early '70s when the invention of the CT Scan was announced, but was also the one who convinced the Government of India to bring this technology to India.

Who Is Dr. Sneh Bhargava?

Sneh Bhargava was born on 23 June 1930 into an affluent family in Lahore in pre-independence India. Her fascination with medicine began as a child who loved playing doctor to her dolls and siblings. During the partition in 1947, her family fled to India, and later, she would visit refugee camps with her father to help people.

Bhargava pursued an MBBS from Lady Hardinge College in New Delhi. She completed her postgraduation studies in Radiology in London, where she was the only female student in the Department of Radiology at Westminster Hospital.

When she reached England in 1955 as a nervous 25-year-old young woman clad in a sari, she unknowingly set the first milestone as India’s pioneering radiologist.

An Ace Radiologist

When Dr. Bhargava returned to India in the 1950s after hearing from her mentor that the country required skilled radiologists, she started working at AIIMS. Back then, AIIMS only had basic imaging tools. The journey of AIIMS from being an institution with only basic imaging tools to becoming India’s leading radiology department was due to Dr. Bhargava’s push for better equipment.

At that time, radiology was not a sought-after department. The only ways doctors could look inside a patient’s body were by doing an X-ray or cutting them open. Radiologists were seen, at best, as photographers and, at worst, as back-office workers.

Dr Bhargava is still fascinated by the current craze for Radiology. She still expresses her disbelief over people preferring Radiology over any other speciality.

Dr Sneh Bhargava became the first-ever female Director in the history of AIIMS. Even today, she remains the only female Director.

In Dr Sneh’s book, The Woman Who Ran AIIMS, she shared anecdotes of her interactions with the members of the Gandhi family, including Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Dr Bhargava’s Long-Running History With the Gandhi Family

On the morning of 31 October 1984, a meeting was underway by the autonomous body at the hospital to confirm Dr Sneh Bhargava’s appointment after India’s then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had selected her for the role. Indira Gandhi had signed her appointment letter, and Dr Bhargava was absent from the meeting.

It was then that a colleague frantically called out to her, asking her to rush to the casualty ward. Dr Bhargava stumbled upon the lifeless body of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Gandhi’s saffron sari was drenched in blood, and she had no pulse. She was worried that a mob would storm the casualty ward, as a large crowd had already begun gathering outside the hospital after the arrival of Indira Gandhi.

Gandhi had been shot by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for Operation Blue Star, the military raid on Amritsar’s Golden Temple in June to remove militants. A medical report later revealed that over three dozen bullets had punctured Gandhi’s body. Gandhi’s assassination sparked one of the deadliest riots India had ever seen, the beginnings of which Dr Bhargava witnessed while shifting the Prime Minister to one of the building’s top floors. In the operating theatre, a Sikh doctor fled the room the minute he heard how Gandhi had died.

By the time her son Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister, their duty was to maintain the news that doctors were trying to save her life, but in reality, she was brought in dead. When the national mourning period was over, Rajiv Gandhi, as Prime Minister, cleared Dr Bhargava’s appointment as Director, which was symbolically one of the first files he cleared.

Dr Bhargava's book also recalls Sonia Gandhi bringing her son, a young Rahul, to AIIMS after an arrow grazed his head while he was playing. “Sonia Gandhi told me that she had to bring Rahul to us because Rajiv (her husband) was meeting the King of Jordan, and the latter had given him a fancy car as a gift, which her husband was keen to drive,” she writes in the book.

Rajiv Gandhi, as a doting father, wanted to drive Rahul to AIIMS himself, without security, as a surprise, but Dr Bhargava firmly stopped him, citing concerns around his safety. In the year 1991, the Government of India conferred on her the fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri.