Category: Asia
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The Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore
Preeti Shanbag Mumbai, India The Christian Medical College The Christian Medical College Hospital was founded by Ida Sophia Scudder in 1900, in response to a calling. Daughter of a North American missionary couple working in India, she was born in Tindivanum in south India in 1870. Her earliest experiences of India were of the…
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Remembering an uncrowded world
Aroop Mangalik Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States I was born in the year of the Elephant – an auspicious year according to the elders – with 30 other million born in that year. My father had hopes for me, hopes that I would see what he did not, achieve what he could not, and…
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Risus sardonicus
Arunachalam KumarMangalore, India There is a pithy adage that goes around in medical circles, “Those who can – DO, those who can’t – TEACH.” Comments like this notwithstanding, some still commit their professional lives to medical teaching as an attractive and rewarding career option. But, who of rational mind, one may ask, would choose anatomy…
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The boys who did not come back from the brink
Ravi ShankarLalitpur, Nepal Lying unconscious on the stone floor, the 14-year-old boy bled profusely from a huge slash across his chest. Ram laughed, the sound resembling the screeching gears of a heavily loaded truck groaning slowly uphill. I frantically tried to staunch the flow of blood with towels and clothes—Ram’s maniacal laughter an incongruous accompaniment—as…
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The patient on the brink
Ravi ShankarNepal The St. Xavier’s hospital in the village of Ellakkal is in a magnificent location nestled in the Western Ghats of the Idukki district in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. The Ghats are a series of hills that reach about 2,000 meters high and run parallel to India’s west coast around 75 kilometers…
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Yellapragada SubbaRow: a profile in greatness
Beerelli Seshi La Jolla, California, United States Marshall Lichtman Rochester, New York, United States Yellapragada SubbaRow’s bust in the garden of the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India. It appears somewhat neglected, reflecting the fading memory of his many important, indeed monumental, contributions to human biology and medicine. SubbaRow was quick to share…
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Joseph C. Carpue: failing to pass on the baton
Birju Rao Chicago, Illinois, United States Rhinoplastic operation J. Warren, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 61:69, 1832 England in the early 1800s was experiencing a renaissance in medicine. The public’s perception of medicine had shifted from what was thought to be a mystic art form towards the understanding that it was indeed a…
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Immortal death: before and after
Karen De Looze Belgium The slow revenge of unforgiving Law And the deep need of universal pain And hard sacrifice and tragic consequence Out of a Timeless barrier she must break, Penetrate with her thinking depths the Void’s monstrous hush, Look into the lonely eyes of immortal Death. — From Shri Aurobindo’s “Savitri” …
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The humanities in a traditional medical school
P. Ravi ShankarAruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands Having been involved with medical humanities for over eight years in medical schools in Nepal and Aruba, I began to think about my own medical education in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The term medical humanities was not in vogue in India during those days, and only…
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Making medical education interesting and exciting
Anuradha Joshi Gujarat, India Can we make an education system which will retain smiles on the faces of our children?1 — Abdul Kalam Image by Anuradha Joshi At a time when doctors are confronted with a veritable explosion of new facts and information, teachers in medical schools should face up to the challenge…