By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Last weekend, I wrote about the harrowing experience of Dr. H.V. Shivaram, who was attacked by a stray horse on the grounds of the Cheluvamba Hospital, which is a part of the large campus of the Mysore Medical College (MMC), while he was a House Surgeon there, way back in the year 1982. Thankfully, that bad experience had a very happy ending, all due to the helpful presence of a few people who were around the spot at the time and the promptness and skill with which Dr. C.B. Murthy, the then professor of surgery, operated upon the badly crushed and mutilated arm of Dr. Shivaram.

After reading my article about that incident, many doctors called me up or messaged me to say that they were Dr. Shivaram’s former classmates and were happy to learn that he has now become a very renowned surgeon, heading the Surgery Department of the Aster CMI Hospital at Bengaluru. But, many of them said that they had lost touch with him completely during the intervening years, as it invariably happens with most of our old classmates and they learnt about his present position only after reading the article he had written about his experience in the Star of Mysore, a week before I wrote mine, in response to it.

Among these responders was Dr. Vimala S. Iyengar, a very close friend of mine, over more than four decades, who hails from a family of doctors. The two of us had worked together for nearly three years, in the Medical ‘A’ unit of the MMC, which was headed by Prof. N.A. Jadhav, while she was posted there as a physician and I was a postgraduate student attached to that unit. Dr. Vimala called me up to say that she was the Casualty Medical Officer on duty, at the K.R. Hospital, on that fateful day when Dr. Shivaram was attacked by the horse and she was therefore the first person to examine and treat him when he was brought to the casualty room.

She recalled how she had rushed to the spot of attack when people around her informed her about what was happening, only to see the horrifying sight of a helpless boy being dragged round and round the quadrangle by the frenzied horse, for almost half-an-hour. She says that the scene that shocked her and which was very similar to what we see in a circus where horses perform stunts, was still vivid and clear in her mind’s eye!

After the attack was ended by the cook of the hospital canteen who in turn attacked the horse with a long kitchen knife, Dr. Shivaram was brought to the casualty room in a semi-conscious condition, with a profusely bleeding arm. Dr. Vimala recalls that when she opined that he would first need a blood transfusion before being shifted to the operation theatre, a fellow house surgeon whose name she is unable to recall immediately, promptly offered to donate blood for him. The collective effort of the medical team saved the arm from being amputated and Dr. Shivaram has gone on to become what he is today.

Dr. Vimala feels very exuberant about this turn of events and says that she would certainly be meeting her patient, first thing, at her next visit to Bengaluru! Some of the lucky man’s classmates told me what a fine human being Dr. Shivaram was and how in profound gratitude to his Alma Mater, the Mysore Medical College, he has renovated the Anatomy dissection hall there at a cost of Rs. 20 lakh, some time ago.

Now, the anatomy dissection hall is the first place from where the education of any doctor begins and very interestingly, it is also the only place where the dead teach the living! That is why Dr. Vissa Ramachandra Rao, my former Professor of Anatomy at the M.R. Medical College in Gulbarga used to always say, “Respect the cadavers, they are your real teachers.” Very true and wise words indeed! What Dr. Shivaram did to his college is a very magnificent gesture and a very munificent act indeed, but that is not all. The good that we do, even silently and secretly, just cannot be hidden for long, because like a flower that blooms unseen in the dark depths of a forest, it silently spreads its fragrance, far and wide. Just yesterday morning I found out that Dr. Shivaram has not forgotten even the tiny village school which provided him his first learning and I felt doubly happy about it.

I had my own special and very personal dose of happiness, when I discovered that this fine man hails from Chikmagalur, where my roots too come from. While I am from a, lost in the hills and woods, hamlet called Aldur, perched atop the Western Ghats, he hails from another similar, nondescript village called Basarikatte, which lies in the lush valleys down below. On one of his visits to his native village he found that the tiled roof of the government school, where he learnt his first Kannada alphabets, was completely blown away by the torrential monsoon rains and winds, which the place is known for.

The result was that classes for all the students of that school had to be conducted with them cramped in just two classrooms. So, Dr. Shivaram not only restored the roof of his school to its rightful place, but also built an extra classroom for the benefit of the kids who study there now. Now, how’s that for the best way of saying thanks, to two foster mothers, because an abode under the roof of which we gain our education, is no less than the lap of a loving and caring mother, which is why it is called an Alma Mater, which in Latin means, Bounteous Mother!

Do think about it and ponder over what you can do for yours. Incidentally, if you happen to be an old student of the Mysore Medical College, your dear Alma Mater is celebrating its centenary, right now and so this might just be the right time to show her how much you love her, for what she has done to you!

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