On my first night as an intern on the pediatric ward, I was terrified; sadly, I witnessed the death of three children from the simple diagnosis of pneumonia. Despite receiving all available treatment in the tertiary hospital at that time, these children did not survive. I knew we had to do better. This experience was what first sparked my interest in pediatrics and eventually led me down the path of studying respiratory and critical care medicine.
I then acquired a position as a Clinical Fellow at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh (icddr,b). The relentless dedication of icddr,b physicians spearheaded by Dr. M.A. Salam and Prof. Tahmeed Ahmed inspired me. I fell in love with icddr,b and was thrilled to acquire a position for a Masters in Pediatric Medicine and then pursed a Ph.D. in Pediatric Respiratory Medicine at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Under the guidance of Prof. Trevor Duke, I completed an important project evaluating the impact of locally made low-cost innovative bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) as compared to World Health Organization recommended low flow oxygen therapy and demonstrated a 75% reduction in mortality. Given this dramatic finding, bCPAP soon became standard of care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at icddr,b with great impact. Implementation of bCPAP is already underway in Bangladesh and Ethiopia with the inspirational leadership of Prof. John Clemens, Executive Director of icddr,b. Recent crisis of COVID 19 ignited me to find bilateral global collaborations, such as those with Dr. Kache from Stanford School of Medicine in USA, and found to be beneficial.
