We ought to congratulate Sri Lanka for eliminating malaria. Yes, there is no malaria in Sri Lanka. The success story is remarkable for several reasons. The country is poor. Eight of ten Sri Lankans live in villages. The rural milieu provides an ideal environment for malaria mosquitoes to breed, grow and multiply. And the government …
Dr Kishore Taori
Dr. Kishor Taori died today. A rare neurological illnessโdetected barely a year agoโtook his breath away. Kishor led the Department of Radiology, GMC, Nagpur; chaired the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) and presided over the Indian Radiology and Imaging Association. He would have completed 60, on 27 September. Kishor belonged to the class of 1974, GMC, …
Tryst with Brevet
Discovering Brevets Before November 2015, I had never heard the word brevet, let alone known how to pronounce it correctly. That changed when my son, Ashwini, successfully completed 200- and 300-km brevets in Nagpur, earning the proud title of Randonneur. I soon discovered that brevets are long-distance, non-competitive cycling events where riders must complete a …
Warora wears me out
Drenched and drainedโand palpably tiredโI parked my bicycle and slumped down into the bed. I had every reason to indulge in this idiosyncrasy. I had achieved what I thought was unachievable. A few months ago, when I began cyclingโa maturity onset disorderโlittle did I know that I would be able to complete a 150 km …
Early birds…
Today, Sevagram Cyclonesโa bunch of bicycle aficionadosโmotivated each other to set mobile alarms at 4:45 am to get up early on a Sunday morning. The plan was to take a two-way 60 km bike rideโfrom Sevagram to Bor Dam. So, Sumedh Manikpure (a medical student), Hardik More (an intern), Nikita Bhugra (a resident), Ashwini Kalantri …
Meeting Dr Desikan
Dr. KV Desikan. Ninety-one-year-old man. This morning, I spent an hour and a half with himโforgetting our age differencesโand spoke to him on a variety of topicsโhis tryst with Sevagram, his leprosy work, his medical maladies and how he copes with them, and the modern doctors. With organisational and administrative skills and energy as enormous …
Dr Varun Bhargava and Babulal
Varun Bhargava (VB) came to Sevagram in 1969. He belonged to the first batch of MGIMS. Four years later, he graduated from MGIMS, went to PGI, Chandigarh to earn his MD (Medicine) and established a highly successful practice in Nagpur. His 100-bed hospitalโdriven by ethics and scienceโ evokes a level of respect and admiration that …
Medical Errors
Four hundred thousand patients in the hospitals in the United States die every year because of medical errorsโfrom mistakes that could have been prevented. The BMJ article, published three days ago, says that โif the medical error was a disease, it would rank as the third leading cause of death in the US.โ Preventable medical …
Super specialists
When I began practising Medicine at MGIMS, whenever I ran into a medical problem, which I thought I could not solve, I would seek a super specialistโs help. This indeed made sense. After all, their years of training and rich experience would help me order the best test, choose the drug that works or pick …
Mammograms: Overdiagnosis
Did I stir up a hornetโs nest when I tried to examine the benefits and harms of mammography? Iโm glad I did. I might have been less than generous in my remarks about mammography, but that does not diminish my unqualified admiration of those who believe that it works. I am happy that some of …