Our heartfelt tributes to famous cardiothoracic surgeon KM.Cherian .
To us he was literally God .
In Nineties we wanted to get the Ventricular Septal defect or hole in heart of our mentally challenged elder daughter closed as its time for a natural closure was over and with time she would develop irreversible issues .
This was just one of Shilpas issues though she was a beautiful child almost an angel but one who did not talk or could walk only with support at 8 years .
We had no doubts regarding the surgery needed would be done at any cost ,as we did not want her to suffer at any cost by something we could find a solution .
An open heart surgery in a child wasnt easy and costs too were a bit high for us young doctors .
We were in CMC Vellore for her training and we showed her to cardiothoracic Dept there .
CMC was well known to have the best skills in south India then .
The surgeon examined her and asked us why we wanted surgery for her ?
we told obviously if we dont correct her defect she will go into cardiac failure and suffer a lot .
Then he asked but is it cost effective ?
we did not grasp it till he repeated well spending around 1.5 lakhs ( those times a big amount ) for a special child what are we going to get back !!!!
We said She is our child whether normal or special and we wanted best for her
it did not depend on what we get back !
even if a normal child are you sure we will get back something ,
Do parents do whats needed for children knowing this !
He said I know you are emotional but in CMC our efforts need to focus more on normal children with a productive future instead of a special child who would be of no use to society .
The point he was making was why do something to save such a child !
It angered and saddened us that our own profession had such soul less men amongst them .
We just told then we will find out who will do and walked out literally in tears .
we had no idea where to go .
Kerala those days had only Chitra Tirunal but we both studied in Madras and we had heard of Dr Cherian in Vijaya Hospital then .
So we both went to meet him ,
I remember seeing Dr Cherian masked in his room as he had just come from OT .
He was angry at an attender for leaving his fridge door open .
we entered a bit nervous and told him all details including what we went through in CMCH .
He made no comments , but just said I will do it ,come in ten days planning for the surgery .
We told him
Sir we cannot afford very high costs in a private hospital as we just started our career .
He did not say anything again just told us
Hari will talk to you .
He called Dr Haridas then his cardiologist later Dr Haridas would become HOD in Amritha hospital establishing a state of art cardiology center in kerala .
Haridas Sir would become close to us years ahead and visited Shilpa center after she left us too .
He too would pass away unfortunately .
That day an young Haridas sir took us to the ward showed us the room she would have
( we wanted the best for her ) told us they would help us out in all ways and Dr Cherian would do his best .
We admitted Shilpa .
with great care Cherian sir operated on her ,for him closure of a VSD was no big feat but routine but he knew Shilpa could not register her anxiety or pain like other children and she had chances of infection etc .
Premila was allowed to be with Shilpa from post op ICU as he knew this child needed her mother .
Usually this is never done as infection chances increases with more people around .
He would during rounds take great care of her .
Two days post op a nurse who was giving steam inhalation spilled hot water on Shilpa by accident ( those days this was method used as no nebulisers )
The nurse pleaded to premila not to tell chief as she may lose her job
premila took up the blame .
Cherian sir was quite angry he just said no excuses for not being careful as we dont want any infections for her and a scald was potential source of infection .
luckily she improved .
The great man took no fee and gave us maximum discount .
He did all this taking great care of our baby healed her without a word or blaming anyone .
My eyes are filled with tears as I write this after three decades today .
We never met him later
Shilpa too left us
but the great human being was God himself who came to heal her
made her heart as good as new .
we too feel good we could do our best for Shilpa not based on cost effectiveness.
May your great soul rest in peace Sir .
Iam sure thousands are praying same for you today .
