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| Ciju Ravindranath, Medical College, Thrissur |
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When
Ciju Ravindranath, a second year student of MBBS at Medical
College, Thrissur was brought to hospital after a motorbike accident, only
a shred of skin connected his right leg to his body.
The pelvic bone had been shattered, his left thighbone fractured
and the rectum and bladder were damaged.
For
a while his breathing and pulse stopped, but the cardiac monitor showed a
faint sign of life.
After the surgeons had worked on him for 8 hours, Ciju just pulled
through.
Confesses his surgeon Dr.N.Jayachandran,”Frankly, we wondered how
he’d cope psychologically even if he survived.”
A
few days later when Dr.Jayachandran told him that he would have to forget
his studies for at least one year, Ciju’s response was definite, “I
won’t lose a whole year!”
After more operations, painful physiotherapy followed.
Ciju would refuse the wheelchair and struggle on crutches for 200m
to the Department.
Back in the room he would read his medical textbooks.
In
October 1998, he went – with his books – to the Army’s Artificial
Limb Centre at Pune.
Normally the pelvic bone supports the artificial leg, but in
Ciju’s case, since half the pelvic bone was missing, the experts had to
device the support all the way down from the chest.
Ciju
joined the college in February 1999, thus losing only 6 months.
Soon afterwards, he cleared his 2nd year MBBS exams.
Now in his 4th year, he hopes to graduate in mid-2001.
“I am going to be a good doctor and nothing can stop me,” he
says.
“I
always tell Ciju’s story to my patients,” says Dr.Jayachandran.
“He’s proof that mind can triumph over body.”
Courtesy: Dr.N.Jayachandran (photo), Readers’ Digest (text), June 2000
Contributed by: Administrator
