Meitei And Kuki Doctors Work Together, Quietly, To Save Lives In Manipur

Doctors from both the Meitei and Kuki communities in the injured border state Manipur have been quietly working together using technology to coordinate remotely with excellent precision to save lives, the chief of a government-backed national project to create intensive care unit (ICU) infrastructure in rural and smaller government hospitals told NDTV.

Bisoya Loitongbam, the national lead of the massively successful '10BedICU' project, founded by former Aadhaar chief technology officer Srikanth Nadhamuni, also posted some details about the work doctors from the two communities have been doing together.

She said their work has had its fair share of challenges in the border state, where the Meitei and Kuki communities began fighting in May 2023. But "trust, clinical skill, and sustained coordination across communities, focused only on saving lives" kept them going, she added.

Loitongbam posted on X some instances of how professional coordination between Meitei and Kuki health professionals amid the deep ethnic division saved many lives.

"Over the last couple of years, health workers belonging to the two warring communities - Meitei critical care specialists at JNIMS [in Imphal] and Kuki doctors and nurses at the Spoke [in Churachandpur] - have continued to work together, quietly and consistently, to save lives," Loitongbam.

Spoke in this context refers to an ICU functioning independently but under the supervision of a larger, main hub.

"At the 10BedICU Spoke ICU at Churachandpur District Hospital, Manipur, this coordination has endured despite disruptions driven by conflict and vested interests - disruptions that do not reflect the intent of most ordinary people. What keeps this going is not infrastructure alone, but trust, clinical skill, and sustained coordination across communities, focused only on saving lives," Loitongbam said.

One of the instances of skilled and precise coordination between healthcare professionals from both communities that she shared was about an 11-month-old girl child who was admitted to the Churachandpur hospital in "status epilepticus", or seizure that lasts a long time and has a high chance of turning fatal. The child at the 'Spoke' was saved after working real-time with an ICU specialist in a 'Hub' and with on-site pediatric support, Loitongbam said.

"This is not an isolated case. Over the last two years, the Churachandpur Spoke ICU has managed more than 1,550 acutely critical patients - many arriving with extreme physiological derangements that, as a Hub doctor notes, are often described in textbooks as 'non-salvageable'," she said.

A lesson from a peripheral ICU in a conflict-ridden district.
On 15 Dec, an 11-month-old girl was admitted at 8:30 pm to the 10BedICU Spoke ICU at Churachandpur District Hospital, Manipur, in status epilepticus. Standard escalation was initiated-benzodiazepines, repeat dosing,… pic.twitter.com/3Ta35n4sxK

— Bisoya Loitongbam (@BisoyaLoitongb1) December 22, 2025

The national lead of the '10BedICU' project in March this year expressed deep distress over the conflict in Manipur that had reversed years of progress.

At a discussion of women civil society leaders and professionals from Manipur's three major communities, she recalled how the state had been emerging as a vibrant and promising state before the violence erupted in May 2023, and also highlighted efforts where people have maintained neutrality and prioritised humanitarian work without bias.

She said conflict resolution is difficult during peak violence as peace efforts lack social support, and called upon like-minded people to draw on their "own convictions and moral compass that helped survive together as a society for so many decades".

The Manipur violence has killed over 260 people and displaced nearly 50,000.