Bangladesh: Dr Edric Baker — A modern day saint died letting us to shed tears

Expressing an honest, personal, sensitive, caring attitude in every patient-physician encounter, despite objective difficulties such as time constraints, is an essential part of medical care and healing.

by Anwar A. Khan-Sep 7, 2018

( September 7, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cold hand of death snatched away Dr. Edric Baker’s life on 1st September 2015 at the age of 74. He was a qualified physician and as a servant of mankind, he treated persons who were in dire emergency need of medical care. He was born into a noble family and an affluent society in New Zealand in 1941. Dr. Baker obtained his MBBS degree from Otego Medical College in his country in 1965. He could have lived there with pompous life earning so much money. But he didn’t do that. He was a confirmed bachelour and decided to sacrifice his whole life treating the down-trodden people and patients in the remote villages of Bangladesh. And he did so with so much care and deep love till his sudden death three years back.

His motto was to heal patients, not kill them. As a matter of fact, Dr. Edric Baker loved to give or bring back a patient’s life. He set up a healthcare centre at a remote hamlet at Pirgacha, Madhupur Police Station, Tangail District of Bangladesh in 1983 where he served the poorest of the people by his treatment for more than three decades sacrificing his whole life. Smile was always writ large on his white face. He was affectionately called “Daktar Bhai” (doctor brother) throughout Tangail District.

Expressing an honest, personal, sensitive, caring attitude in every patient-physician encounter, despite objective difficulties such as time constraints, is an essential part of medical care and healing. As a result, both patients and physicians gain immensely and the quality of care and ‘hard’ health outcomes improve. Thus, empathic medical practice adds an absolutely essential domain to the current sophisticated, technological and scientific medicine; therefore, existing deficiencies in the empathic aspects of care need urgent attention which this most revered Daktar Bhai selflessly rendered his most caring services to hundreds of thousands of poor patients almost at free of cost. He has trained up 89 young boys and girls as health assistants and paramedics who visit the neighbouring villages to give treatment to the sick people, especially the pregnant mothers and newborns.

In a rare example of love and sacrifice, he had treated poor patients unto his death. In the language of Baker, “The people here are really good and they do not get healthcare due to poverty. I’ve chosen this country in order to give them a little health support.” That was his simple assertion. He collected the money from private donors including his friends and well-wishers in New Zealand, the US and the UK and spent the same for the treatment and welfare of his patients; not for his own purpose. He lived in a hut made of earth; used to wear ordinary lungis which our poor people usually wear in the villages; and used an ordinary bi-cycle to visit the patients’ houses to render his kind-hearted treatment to them.

He was a humanist doctor; and undoubtedly, a doctor par excellence! He lived and led a very simple life but at the same breath of pace, he was an extra-ordinary kind–hearted human being. Where shall we get another high quality of humanist doctor who will serve the destitute in those remote areas of Tangail District? Becoming a doctor, he fostered humane caregivers through his treatment and made the patients feel well. For more than 30 years, “Doctor Bhai” has been a beacon of burnished humanism to the people and the patients there. Throughout his life, he has consistently and boldly stood up for the dignity and respect of all.

Wonderful! Truly wonderful! Doctor Bhai, thank you very much. There many people out there in the world, travelling and discovering and learning and loving and inspiring and doing what people thought was impossible. He did impossible things to make them possible. Whether these poorest people realise it or not, an alien physician has inspired many people in that remote areas. Not with a gun or a superpower, laws or missiles, but a medical-box, a statoscope and with some medicines.

Dr. Baker was a man, a noble man; a kind-hearted man; a kind-hearted human being and a kind-hearted doctor who we all should aspire to be remembering this great soul. Maybe, we might not be able to time travel. “Sitting in his mud-built one-room home just behind the centre, he told one correspondent of a reputed Daily once upon a time with flurry that he now waits for a successor. Many students get MBBS degree in the country every year. I’m waiting for one of them to come and take the responsibility to provide treatment to the poor in the area.” But he lamented that no one did turn up!

It is hard to explain how loved and respected he was. Since the moment he passed he was never once left alone. Local Mandi woman sang songs, people read from the Koran, others wept, and other stood silently keeping a vigil. Up until his burial, he was surrounded by those he loved and who loved him. News reports have said, “People came from all over Bangladesh, some arriving in the night and most refused beds offered to them for rest and preferred to tell stories of their time with Edric late into the night. Even in death he managed to bring different communities and cultures together. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, rich, poor, Bangladeshi and foreigner all worked side by side to fulfill his final wishes.” By the evening he was laid out on a table in the waiting room beside his Hospital. Hundreds of people came to give their goodbyes and showed their appreciation. By the morning many visitors and staff had not slept but no one minded and work began early.

After this noble soul’s passing, the whole hospital compound was full of people. He was laid to rest in his coffin and carried to the church (which doubles as a school) beside his Hospital. As the service was progressing hundreds waited outside and then followed his casket back to his house. He had made it clear to the staff he wanted to be buried out the back of his house underneath his veranda.

As he was being laid to rest, two lines of people formed surrounding his house and extending all the way out to the road. Slowly everybody gave their final farewells and each person sprinkled earth over his grave. At the end of the day the staff was happy that they were able to fulfill two out of three of his final wishes. His first wish was to take his last breath at Kailakuri. His second wish was that he be buried here at the Kailakuri Health Care Centre. His third wish was that the hospital continues to stay open and operational long into the future. His last wish will never be completed without the help of others.

The Doctor Edric Baker is the greatest humanist the universe has ever known. He considered treating of patients was a great privilege for him. Good doctors are humble doctors, willing to listen to their patients and gather together the full array of resources—medical, human, social, and spiritual—that will contribute to their patients’ healing. And he was such a great and noble physician!

Expressing an honest, personal, sensitive, caring attitude in every patient-physician encounter, despite objective difficulties such as time constraints, is an essential part of medical care and healing. As a result, both patients and physicians gain immensely and the quality of care and hard health outcomes improve. Thus, empathic medical practice adds an absolutely essential domain to the current sophisticated, technological and scientific medicine, therefore, existing deficiencies in the empathic aspects of care need urgent attention.

Dr. Edric Baker achieved distinction because of his humanistic approach to medical practice for his patients. His profile helps to demonstrate the huge potential of the medical humanities. He was a man, led by his feelings, who helped poor patients in various ways, regardless of their social status, ethnic and religious affiliation, and sometimes even regardless of the current moral values of the environment he or she has been working in. Science and medicine, however, as Dr. Baker realised, are practiced in the context of human desires and needs, and so always within some sort of moral context, as he made clear in summing up:

“The doctor must be practiced in logical theory in order to discover the nature of the body, the differences between diseases, and the indications as to treatment; he or she must despise money and cultivate self-control in order to stay the course. He or she must, therefore, know all the parts of philosophy: the logical, the physical, and the ethical: In that case there will be no danger of his performing any evil action since he or she practices self-control and despises money: all evil actions that men or women undertake are done either at the prompting of greed or under the spell of pleasure. And so he or she is bound to be in the possession of the other virtues too, for they all go together. It is impossible to gain one without acquiring all the others as an immediate consequence; they are connected as if by one string.”

But it is his particular description of the followers of Dr. Edric that is most interesting for our own inquiry into the nature and relevance of the arts to human life. He offered a graphic, idiosyncratic imagining of his followers. He imagined them gathering around God…and nearest God, forming a circle about Him, are geometers, mathematicians, philosophers, doctors, astronomers, and scholars. After them the second band: painters, sculptors, grammarians, carpenters, architects; and after them the third order: all the other arts. Each is drawn up in his individual place; but they all fix God with the same constant look, obedient to His bidding…You will find here, too, many who stand actually with the God — a sort of fourth rank, picked out from the others…The contemplation of this band and of its character will, he fancied, conduced to emulation and, indeed, adoration. Socrates is among them, and Homer, Hippocrates, and Plato, as well as their lovers; these are people to be revered like Jasminumofficinale, as they are the true jasmine.

He strongly believed in the fight for reason, truth, respect, and justice for everyone, always when he served his patients, and he has dedicated his entire life for humanity’s good. He once said, “He or she who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he or she who studies medicine without patients doesn’t go to sea at all.” He also said, “Listen to your patients. They are telling you the diagnosis.”

Today, one of our institutional priorities is to be the national leader in the provision and teaching of patient- and family-centred care. And many of physicians in the profession are wrestling with how to balance cutting-edge medicine and life-saving technologies with the need for a human touch and listening to what a patient wants and values.

Patients are people with feelings, opinions and goals. As physicians, it behooves physicians to get the patient involved in the healing process – to try to understand their goals and find the path that best meets their needs. Caring doctors are better doctors. They practice safer medicine, earn more trust from patients and get them more engaged in their healthcare, leading to better outcomes. To lead this change, we must find the proper balance between the time-intensive demands of a patient-centric approach to care with the need to handle a growing volume of patients. Dr. Baker could understand it very well and applied his patient-oriented services accordingly.

The concept of humanism has been a cornerstone of medicine throughout history. Beginning from the time of Hippocrates and the development of the Hippocratic oath, doctors have been dedicated to the physician’s duty to benefit the sick and protect them from injustice. In 1902, Sir William Osler’s commitment to humanism was exemplified by his famous quote, “It is much more important to know what sort of person has a disease, than know what sort of disease a person has.” In 1927 Dr. Frances Peabody wrote an article on “the Care of the Patient” that emphasises the importance of both the science and the art of medicine.

While humanism has been defined in multiple ways, two definitions stand out. One definition by physician and ethicist Edward Pellegrino includes “a set of deep-seated personal convictions about one’s obligations to others, especially those in need; encompassing a spirit of sincere concern for the centrality of human values in every aspect of professional activity.” Similarly, Dr. Baker defines humanism as “The physician’s attitudes and actions that demonstrate interest in and respect for the patient that addresses the patient’s concerns and values. This generally relates to patients’ psychological, social and spiritual domains.”

While some contend that humanism and professionalism are similar, Dr. Jordan Cohen has distinguished the two as separate concepts. He defines professionalism as the way of acting, observable behaviours that meet the expectations of patients. Some examples include competency, confidentiality, and fulfilling responsibilities. In contrast, humanism is a way of being, including a set of deep seated convictions of others, especially those in need. Examples include altruism, compassion and respect for others. In summary, Dr. Cohen states that “Humanism is the passion that animates professionalism.”

Humanism has many components that are central to the Professionalism Charter. These include the principles of primacy of patient welfare that embrace altruism and trust, core concepts to the relationship between physicians and patients. The physician’s role in social justice, such as eliminating discrimination within medical care is also key to humanism. And the commitment to honesty with patients and enhancing the communication with patients is critical in our role as healers.

Most physicians would probably agree that a humanistic approach to patients – one that is sensitive to the cultural backgrounds, values, and preferences of the patient–is essential for quality patient care. Dr. Baker worked tirelessly to give quality treatment for his patients. Famous English Poet John Donne once aptly said, “Death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.” His death is a rude shock to me; and to us all in Bangladesh. A modern day saint died letting us to shed tears because of sadness or pain for his noble services for the poorest of the in a remote hamlet of Tangail District. Rise up and salute this sun repeatedly. The Bangladesh Government should make necessary arrangements to honour this noble soul as quickly as possible.

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