Bihar Doctor Abhishek Ranjan Quits AIIMS Job, Trains Over 50,000 People In CPR With His Own Savings
He has covered 18 districts of Bihar hoping to give families a better chance of helping someone through a medical emergency, reports Atal Bihar Pandey.
Published : October 3, 2026 at 12:13 PM IST
Gopalganj: While working at AIIMS, Dr Abhishek Ranjan kept encountering patients who had travelled from Bihar for treatment. Some came from his own district, Gopalganj, seeking care for respiratory and heart ailments. Their journeys made him reconsider his own. After three years at the institution, he decided to return home and serve the people whose difficulties he had been seeing from a distance.
He returned to Gopalganj in 2018. Today, alongside running a private clinic on College Road, Ranjan travels to villages and institutions to teach people a skill that could help them respond when someone collapses before a doctor or ambulance arrives. His free cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, training campaign brings together young people, villagers, police personnel and community health workers.
According to Ranjan, he has trained more than 50,000 people across approximately 18 districts of Bihar. He pays for the travel and training expenses from his own savings, hoping to give families in remote areas a better chance of helping someone through a medical emergency.
The Decision To Return Home
“People from Bihar, including many from Gopalganj, were coming to AIIMS for treatment of respiratory and heart diseases. That made me think that why shouldn’t I go back and serve my own people?” Ranjan said.
Returning home allowed him to treat patients in his district, but he also wanted to reach people beyond his clinic. He believes residents of Gopalganj and other parts of Bihar should have access to the quality of healthcare available in larger cities. The training campaign grew from his concern about what happens before a patient reaches that care.
In a village, a family confronted with a sudden medical emergency may have to wait for transport, an ambulance or a doctor. Ranjan wants someone nearby to know how to offer immediate help during that wait. His sessions aim to prepare ordinary citizens to act rather than remain helpless or panic.
How He Chose Medicine
Ranjan comes from Koini village in Gopalganj’s Barauli block. His father, Rajiv Ranjan, is a farmer and businessman. He studied at a private school in Patna and then pursued his MBBS and postgraduate medical studies, including an MD, at a medical college in Cuttack. He subsequently worked in the respiratory medicine department at AIIMS.
The idea of becoming a doctor took shape during his school years in Patna. His landlord was a physician, and the respect he received left an impression on the young student. Getting into medicine, however, was not easy.
“Seeing the respect accorded to our landlord, who was a doctor, inspired me to become one. After Class XII, I missed the cut-off by just 0.05 marks. But I did not give up and worked my way to where I am today,” he said.
The elder of two brothers, Ranjan has no sisters. His younger brother and his wife both work as bank managers. His own professional path eventually brought him back to the district where he had grown up.
Taking CPR Training To Communities
Ranjan said the idea of teaching CPR took shape during the Covid period, when he became concerned about cases of heart attacks among young people and the wider population. He saw a need for greater awareness of how to respond when a person suffers cardiac arrest.
CPR is an emergency procedure used when the heart stops pumping effectively. It helps maintain the circulation of blood and oxygen to the brain and other vital organs until further medical help becomes available.
Ranjan’s concern is the time lost between an emergency and treatment. He said arranging transport or waiting for an ambulance can often take more than 20 minutes. Without someone able to provide immediate assistance, a patient may deteriorate or die before reaching hospital.
He cited figures suggesting that only 1.8 per cent of India’s population knows CPR, compared with more than 20 per cent abroad. These are figures he cited in explaining the need for wider training. His emphasis is on the earliest minutes after cardiac arrest, when prompt intervention can improve the chance of survival.
For villagers, young people and families attending his sessions, the purpose is practical - learning how to provide initial assistance while medical help is being arranged. Through the campaign, he also hopes to improve awareness of health emergencies and first aid in places where such training is not readily available.
From Police Personnel To Village Health Workers
The campaign began at the Motihari police centre. Ranjan chose to train police personnel because they are often stationed in markets and other public places, where they may be among the first people available to respond to an emergency.
“The training began at the Motihari police centre. I have now trained more than 50,000 people across approximately 18 districts of Bihar. My target is to cover the remaining 20 districts by the end of 2026. I am preparing police personnel as master trainers because they are often present in public places and markets,” he said.
To take the initiative into villages and homes, he is also training ASHA workers, women associated with the Jeevika programme, and Anganwadi workers and helpers. He hopes they can become “human health leaders”, helping extend CPR awareness and assistance to households in remote areas.
The effort connects people who already work closely with communities. A police officer in a crowded market or a health worker visiting a village household could be in a position to help before a medical team arrives.
A Campaign Funded From His Savings
Ranjan said he receives no government grant or financial assistance for the campaign. Travel to distant districts, vehicle hire, accommodation and meals for his team are paid for from his personal savings. He visits two districts every month, spending at least Rs 20,000 on these trips.
Keeping the programme going was difficult initially. Finding time alongside his medical practice, travelling to far-flung areas and bringing police personnel together for training required considerable effort. Support from Bihar’s director general of police and the administration, he said, helped him sustain the initiative.
“The state DGP and the administration extended their full cooperation. That made it easier to continue the campaign,” he said.
Ranjan now wants the initiative to grow beyond Bihar and become part of a larger public health effort. “My aim is to turn this into a national campaign so that it can become an important part of the National Health Mission,” he said.
For now, his clinic and training visits keep him closely connected to the people he returned to serve. And that Dr Ranjan believes matters the most.
Also Read:
