Meerut: Hosp names lab after mother of doctor who put duty above grief

Meerut: The day Dr Atul Srivastava’s mother died, over 300 Covid test reports were lying on his desk, waiting for his approval. It was April 30. The microbiologist at Muzaffarnagar Medical College rushed to his mother’s funeral for just two hours and made his way back to the lab he had been painstakingly putting together for over a year. Since April last year, the Covid diagnostics lab was all he had worked for —putting in 20 hours a day, testing over 20,000 samples without a single day of leave. On Friday, the hospital inaugurated the lab with a salute to the doctor—it was named ‘Smt Jai Shri Sinha Diagnostic and Research Laboratory’ after his mother.

“His mother, brother-in-law and uncle died of Covid. But he showed commendable professional commitment,” said Prof GS Manchanda, the medical college’s principal. “The day his mother died, he had to approve reports from the panchayat poll panel to ensure the election’s timely completion. Dedicating the lab to his mother is our way of showing gratitude for his selfless service.”