Dr BS Choubey, Head, Department of Medicine (1972-83) and former Dean, GMC, Nagpur died Saturday morning following an inexplicable respiratory illness in a private nursing facility at Nagpur. He was 77.
For the last two years, Dr Choubey was also struggling with severe and disabling diabetic neuropathy which did not let him walk unaided- he had almost stopped attending social and public functions.
I attended his funeral, held at Ambazari, Nagpur. Several senior physicians and his former students had gathered to pay their last respect to the extraordinary physician and teacher- the like of whom we will never see again.
Dr Choubey was my guide in the MD program – he asked me to assess if vasodilators during peritoneal dialysis would drive urea and creatinine out โ faster and longer. I was his house officer and registrar between 1979 and 198, days that have shaped my clinical thinking and reasoning. Quick, focused and sharp, Dr Choubey’s brilliance and passion would fill the wards as he would start rounding his patients precisely at 8:00 am, every day. He hated mediocres, loathed sloppiness, detested clumsiness and kept everybody on their toes during bedside discussions. We, the terrified registrars, would watch him rounding his patients and making diagnoses with an efficiency and accuracy few can surpass even today. He taught Medicine in an era when technology had not invaded the patientโs bedside: he skillfully showed the spellbound trainees the art of injecting science in the bedside diagnosis. Thirty years have slipped by since I left ward 23, GMC, Nagpur but can vividly recall every moment that I lived in what were formative years of my training.
Goodbye, Sir. May you find peace in your new abode.