(Continued from last fortnight)

The ward "breakup" social of the Graduating Class, March 1947. Chief guest Dr. U. Mohan Rao. (X) S. Ramaswamy

l Madras Medical College, 73 years ago – as recalled by Dr. S. Ramaswamy, Professor of Anatomy (Retd). He was a 1941 batch student of MMC.

A very significant event in January 1946 was Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to South India. He stayed in the Hindi Prachar Sabha in Madras, and Madras Medical College was assigned the task of looking after the sanitation arrangements in the entire campus, including his apartment, the grounds where he conducted his prayer meetings, and establishments such as stalls etc. As the Class Representative of the Final Year batch, I was chosen to be the deputy leader, the chief being a prominent doctor. The MMC team was specially complimented for its work.

* * *

In March, Balakrishna Shetty and S.V.K.S. Thangarajan contested for the post of Secretary of the Association. Balakrishna Shetty was very popular with the students, being a very jovial person and a sportsman. There was hectic campaigning by the supporters of both of them. For some reason, the student electors had a prejudice against a girl who campaigned for Balakrishna Shetty and he lost by a narrow margin. But the perfect gentleman that he was, he not only accepted his defeat gracefully, but also arranged a tea party to felicitate Thangarajan. Such was the camaraderie in those days, there was not a trace of hard feelings or personal animosity. In fact, Balakrishna Shetty worked very hard for the success of ensuing college functions even though Thangarajan was the elected Secretary.

The graduates’ reception was held in August and preparations for the entertainment went on for three weeks. I was in charge of the orchestra. The orchestra accompanied me on the song Chupana, which was from a recording of Pankaj Mullick. On the morning of the function I had a laryngeal problem and suffered from hoarseness of voice. I was not sure whether I could sing at the function. Dr. Leelavathy, Assistant to Dr. P.V. Cherian, Head of the E.N.T. Department, put me on tincture benzoin inhalations and ‘Surets’ throat pastilles. Thangarajan was also concerned about my problem and about two hours before the function he suggested that “a small dose of brandy” would be of help in clearing the throat. So we went to Spencer’s at Central Station and had a drink. The inhalations, ‘Surets’ and the ‘stimulant’ all came to my rescue and the song was a hit.

The instrumental combine in the orchestra comprised veenas, violins, sitar and bulbulthara, apart from the harmonium as the lead and played by my classmate G.V. Ramani. GVR was an expert on the instrument and he had the distinction of being part of the orchestra in the film Satyavan Savitri when it was filmed in Calcutta. M.S. Subbulakshmi had acted as Narada and Shante Apte, a very famous actress of the time, as Savitri. A prominent Telugu actor had played the role of Satyavan.

It was customary those days for the participants in the entertainment programme and office-bearers of the Association to go on a day’s trip to Ennore on a convenient day soon after the function and enjoy the day out as reward for their contribution in making the event a success.

* * *

A cricket tournament open to the three Government Medical Colleges was to be held in late September in Vizagapatam. I was also invited to go with the College team but was very reluctant to undertake the trip as I had spent considerable time on the training of the orchestra, three hours from 4 pm to 7 pm every day for nearly three weeks and had to make up for the lost time as the examinations in the major subjects of Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery were due in the first week of December. In order to “escape” from the situation, I insisted on being the one-down batsman. Surprisingly the captain agreed. But, eventually, I decided to stay back.

The night the team left for Vizag, I found, after I had had a snack, that I was in discomfort, suffering from pain in the lower part of the abdomen on the right side. I thought all the signs and symptoms indicated appendicitis. M.S. Ramakrishnan, my classmate and room-mate in the I.O.A., telephoned the General Hospital for an ambulance and accompanied me, reaching the hospital around 9 p.m. Dr. Sathasivam, Assistant to Major Sheppard, Chief Surgeon and Superintendent of the Hospital, was on duty that night. He examined me and confirmed my diagnosis but added “acute”. It was around 11 p.m. and Dr. Sathasivam asked me whether I was prepared to undergo immediate surgery. It was Amavasya, I came to know later, but at the time I unhesitatingly said “yes”. I was shifted to the Donovan Ward meant mainly for medical students and then to the operation theatre where I was operated upon by Dr. Sheppard.

The operation over, I was expecting a long vertical bandage dressing on the right side of the abdominal mid-line but was pleasantly surprised to find just a padding-like dressing covering the incision on the skin. Major Sheppard was a brilliant surgeon and I was extremely grateful to him for minimising the scar at the operation spot to just over 5 cm!

The pathology report indicated “acute suppurative appendicitis” which could have burst and caused peritonitis but for the timely removal.

Due for discharge a week later, I found I had catheter fever, a normal problem with spinal anaesthesia. The lower limbs recovered mobility at the expected time. I was given “aqueons” penicillin injection (very painful) every 6 hours. The long acting Procaine Penicillin had not been developed at the time. I recovered from the fever quickly but had a relapse and so my discharge was delayed further. Ultimately, I had to remain in hospital for nearly three weeks, being discharged only in mid-October. I returned to the I.O.A. but was advised rest for at least fifteen days more and to avoid travelling by public transport. But there was no option to academic classes and ward postings. Dr. K.S. Sanjivi came to my rescue, picking me up in his car every morning and dropping me in the college for nearly a fortnight, till I became fit again.

Meanwhile, a fine arts section of the Association was mooted and I was the unanimous choice for Arts Secretary. But I had to decline as I felt I had lost considerable time at the hospital.

* * *

Having lost three weeks’ time in the hospital, it was very strenuous preparing for the exams, and so I was advised to postpone my appearance to the April 1947 examinations. But considering that I had been receiving aid (exemption from fees and supply of essential books right from 1942 as my brother was in the army and I was his dependent undergoing the course), I took the risk of appearing in December hoping that I could clear at least two subjects and confident that, if I did fail in one I could handle it sucessfully in April while still being eligible for exemption from college fees and examination fees, the rules permitting one failure for continuation of the facilities. I got through Obstetrics and Gynaecology, then called Midwifery, with high marks and passed in Medicine, but went down in Surgery.

Dr. Thampan from Stanley Medical College was the ‘external’ examiner and he was said to be quite tough with M.M.C. students. Dr. Thomas was the ‘internal’ examiner and luckily for me it was his turn to examine me in the Obstetrics part. He was very happy with my performance and when the external examiner started questioning me, Dr. Thomas quietly said, “I have examined him, let him go” – this was the same Dr. Thomas whom I had assisted during the caesarean section in March!

In Surgery, Dr. Kanagasabesan examined me in the ‘long case’ which was the major part of the practical clinical examination. I was hoping I would not get an orthopaedics case for the long case, but it turned out to be a case of tuberculosis of the hip joint that I was allotted.

I fumbled badly, though I could satisfy the other examiner in the ‘short cases’. I did fairly well in the operative surgery practical and the viva voce in the afternoon. Dr. Sheppard was the viva voce examiner. But ultimately I did not get through.

At the Gynaecology oral in the morning, the examiners had heard that I had done very well in the Obstetrics part and after a few questions the external examiner asked me, “What are the contents of the umbilical cord?” I gave a very confident answer: “Two umblical arteries, one umbilical vein and Wharton’s jelly.” She asked me what was Wharton’s jelly but I couldn’t get the correct answer at the moment and the examiner said “Get out”, but not too harshly! I thought that was it and came out of the examination venue quite diffident. But outside, Dr. E. V. Kalyani said I had done very well! And the marks did match her statement, I saw later.

The failure in Surgery did not deter me and I put in the maximum effort to gain as much knowledge as possible in the subject. When classes commenced in January 1947. Col. Sangham Lal had taken over as Superintendent of the General Hospital and was Professor of Surgery. Dr. Kanagasabesan was Professor of Operative Surgery.

The operative surgery lectures were in the afterroom and I was very careful in following everything Dr. Kanagasabesan lectured on. He had his own way of presentation of some of the sections in surgery. One such was treatment of a fracture of scaphoid bone in the wrist. He stressed its anatomical configuration saying that “it had a waist”, a narrow portion through which the artery supplying it passed and hence liable to be cut in the event of a fracture and resulting in the two parts of the bone getting separated and remaining separate even after the healing process had taken place!

The examinations ensued in April. I went through the theory, clinical and viva voce examinations satisfactorily. This time I was very thorough with orthopaedics but still hoped that my ‘long case’ would not be from it. Again it was an orthopaedics ‘long case’ – spinal fracture! This time I was familiar with the surgical anatomy questions usually asked by the examiners. The examiners were Dr. Chandu Nambiar, Dr. C. Raghavachari, Col. Sangham Lal, Dr. Kanagasabesan, Dr. Narasimha Iyer and another. This time I did as well as in the short cases. In the afternoon Dr. Raghavachari was my examiner for the operative surgery practical (amputation of the thumb) and Dr. Kanagasabesan, for the viva voce. I did very well in the practical and faced Dr. Kanaga Sabesan in the Viva. He gave me a splint and asked me what it was used for. I answered it was for support of the wrist in “Scaphoid fracture”. Promptly he asked me about the anatomy of the scaphoid bone and equally promptly I answered exactly the way he had described it during his classes. He smiled and appeared to be extremely happy as I had used the word “waist”, but in the end he said in Tamil, “All that you have said is absolutely correct but what you told in the beginning is wrong.” My face fell.

After the examination, as he was getting into his car, he saw me and asked where I was going. I said I was going to my residence at the IOA. He asked me to get into the car and took me to his house, gave me tea and snacks and had me dropped in IOA. It was such a contrast to my “encounter” with him in December 1946! I received the marks later and my MBBS course had a happy ending  but the one failure in surgery came in the way of my getting a “paid” housemanship. The rules were funny and unreasonable. Whatever be the number of failures in the other years, a pass in all three subjects, Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, was necessary for getting a paid housemanship!

(Concluded)