Hurghom was a male Klingon alive in the 23rd century. He was the grandson of Antaak - the Klingon doctor who had accidentally created the augment disease which afflicted millions of Klingons with a more human like appearance. Like his grandfather Hurghom was a physician.
In the early 23rd century Hurghom served the House of Ngoj. When the Lady Moj'ih became pregnant with a child, Hurghom and fellow physician Nej administered genetic treatments to Moj'ih in the hopes that she would produce a HemQuch child - a child with a normal Klingon appearance. While the child was born with cranial ridges, the child was an albino, and seen as too weak to be allowed to live by his mother. The servant Do'Yoj was tasked with killing the child, however she took the child and left him in the mountains - where he was discovered by Orion pirates. This child, who was named Qagh by the pirates, grew up to become a pirate himself called the Albino.
In the mid 23rd century Hurghom and Nej worked on developing a retrovirus to remove human augment DNA from QuchHa' Klingons, thus restoring their proper appearance. In 2269 they finally achieved a measure of success when the retrovirus was introduced to the crew of the IKS 'Oghwl'. Captain Koloth and some of his crew were cured, and had their standard Klingon appearance restored. However other Klingons, such as Koloth's friends Kang and Kor were unaffected by the retrovirus.
Later, Doctor Hurghom developed another retrovirus which succeeded in removing the human augment DNA from those Klingons who had proven resistant to the earlier cure. Believing that Hurghom had unleashed a plague on the people of Qo'noS, Kang killed Hurghom, but in his last moments of life Hurghom saw his efforts succeeding as Kang and Mara developed cranial ridges. Hurghom died believing that he had paid for his sins and those of his grandfather. (ST novel: Excelsior: Forged in Fire)