Dr, Ramkrishna Krishnaji Gadgil was born in a middle class family on 13th January 1922 in a small village of Guhagar, Ratnagiri Maharashtra. In the pre-independence era life in general was already difficult in Konkan, with poverty, lack of medical facilities and superstitions to add to more woes. His father, Krishnaji, was a farmer as well as a social worker and Mother, Rakhamabai, was a housewife. As parents their ambition was to provide good education to all the nine kids. Dr. R. K. Gadgil always had a big dream of becoming a doctor. He completed his primary education in Guhagar itself and went to Jalagaon for secondary education. After passing all the preliminary hurdles of becoming a doctor, Ramkrishna was able to secure admission at Grant Medical College (GMC) Mumbai. He completed MBBS in 1946 and MD (Pathology & Bacteriology) 1949 from GMC. He was married to Mrs. Urmila on May 20,1950. She delivered a baby boy, Charuchandra, on September 12, 1952. Unfortunately, she succumbed to mitral stenosis on November 15, 1953 and his short-lived married life ended in about 3 years. He did not remarry and devoted his entire life for research and social work.
During his Guhagar visit in October 1951 he expressed an idea of holding a medical camp to villagers. On May 3 , 1952 the first medical camp was held in Zilla Parishad primary school, Gimvi village (Guhagar) by Dr. R.K Gadgil with his J. J. Hospital collegues. This was the first rural medical camp in India. Hence Dr. R. K. Gadgil can truly be called as ‘FATHER OF RURAL MEDICAL CAMP ‘. Through his meticulous research he discovered an endemic focus of schistosomiasis in the village Gimvi. In 1956,he could establish life cycle of the Schistosoma hematobium. His instructions and guidance to the Government Public Health Department led to the eradication of the Schistosomiasis focus in Gimvi in 1969. Dr. R. K. Gadgil was also invited by WHO fellowship to Egypt to conduct eradication program of schistosomiasis. Meanwhile in 1959, he registered himself for Ph.D course in Savitribai Phule , Pune University. His Ph.D thesis was evaluated by Prof. of Parasitology London School of Tropical Medicine (U.K.) and was awarded Ph.D in 1962. In addition to this Dr. R. K. Gadgil was awarded the ‘Dr. Bhalerao Gold Medal’ for his research on Schistosomiasis during Indian Science Congress held in Mumbai. Besides his contribution to discovery and eradication of Schistosomiasis, his scientific articles on lipid profile in healthy Indians, elastic tissues in chondrosarcomas, LDH in hepatobiliary diseases, carcinoma of liver and tropical eosinophilia are notable primarily for their originality.
His career as professor and head of Department Pathology (Grant Medical College) spanned from year 1955 to 1973 and then as Dean from 1973 to 1974. As HOD he was a strict disciplinarian. He was also an active member of ‘Teaching Pathologist Association‘ Mumbai, ICMR, New Delhi, Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologist of which he was president in 1981. He was President of Maharashtra Medical Council from 1979 to 1984.
Dr. R. K. Gadgil lived a very happy and contented family life post-retirement with his son Mr, Charuchandra Gadgil, daughter in law Mrs. Rekha Gadgil and two grand-daughters Dr. Shweta Gadgil and Ms. Tanuja Gadgil. His son was civil engineer by profession and worked for Air India for most of his career. Dr. R. K. Gadgil had fortune to spend good time with his great grand-daughter Spruha Joshi. He rose for the heavenly abode on 19th April 2018 at the age of 97 years without any discomfort, distress or pain. He inspired and supported many students during his tenure as professor and Dean of Grant Medical College. He also set an example for many of his family members to enter the field of medicine and work for the good of the society.
Dr. R. K. Gadgil’s life journey was definitely not a smooth ride but he achieved many more goals than he had set for himself at the beginning. He built an unprecedented people network and all the required skills to build an empire for himself. It is often convenient and easy to achieve everything for yourself – but, Dr. R. K. Gadgil’s contribution towards society is what sets him apart.
The Checkup thanks Dr. Shweta Gadgil for taking time from her busy dental practice in Mumbai, to write this article sharing the inspiring life story of her grandfather with our readers.
