Reflections on Medicine and Life by Dr. S.P. Kalantri
Dr. Mandeep Mehra (MGIMS Sevagram alumnus; Class of 1983) today published a landmark trial in the New England Journal of Medicine. His paper showed that a mechanical pump implanted in the heart of patients with advanced heart failure could make the patients breathe better, and walk longer—without increasing the risk of pump-induced strokes. To earn … Read the essay
“Move fast. Don’t waste your time. I already know the background of your institute,” Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice-President, seemed to be impetuously impatient and in a haste, as I was about to make my PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Naidu had come to Sevagram this Sunday to inaugurate the operating theatre of our hospital. My … Read the essay
Unbelievable, but true. Robert Liston, a Scottish surgeon (1784-1847) practised orthopaedic surgery all over Britain. He obtained specialisation in amputations, practising in an era when anaesthesia was in infancy. Cutting and sawing on a conscious, screaming patient took strong nerves and a strong stomach. The shorter the operation, Liston thought, the lesser the pain the … Read the essay
Atul Gawande, the surgeon-researcher-public health activist in his recent essay describes the current medical practice so succinctly : “Millions of people are receiving drugs that aren’t helping them, operations that aren’t going to make them better, and scans and tests that do nothing beneficial for them, and often cause harm.” Once a test or a … Read the essay
Bevan Congdon died today. I remember his two towering sixes in the 1969 Nagpur test (India vs. New Zealand) – incidentally, the first cricket match that I saw live at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur. A connoisseur’s dream, he scored match-winning sixty-plus in the first inning and had no problems reading the variations in … Read the essay