When I had a health scare recently, I had the fortune to be treated by a young doctor in Kuwait. He saw me at the appointed time, was never rushed, the ambience of his consulting room was simple, he had all the time in the world to lavish on me, which he did with considerable patience. He listened to my history when I met him the first time without once interrupting me and over a period of one and a half months met me many times over, explaining to me exactly what my present condition was, what the future beholds and how he is managing my health. More than the medicines, it was his approach that restored my health. He was a throw back to the old days of Family Physicians who were such an integral part of our life prior to all these superspeciality hospital monsters coming up in 1990's.The first doctor who comes into mind is Dr. C V Raman, a wizened old doctor in Kalpathy, Palghat who treated a frail young boy racked by dry cough when he was in his secondary school. He was not a MBBS, but had a diploma in medicine. He had his own inhouse pharmacy, where the 'Compounder' mixed various concoctions and poured into a bottle to be given to you. The medicines where wrapped in bits of paper and I suspect, all of them were either a paracetamol or an analgesic. Anyway, they were unbranded. This was in 1970's. I still dont know how effective they were, but his soothing talk and his calm demeanour and the fact that a Doctor has attended to my illness was more than enough for me. I dont remember him ever conducting a blood test or even taking an X-ray. All he used was his Stethescope.
When I entered high school, Dr. C V Raman left the practice for his son Dr.C V K Moorthy, who was US returned. A far better physician than his father, Dr.Moorthy, unfortunately lacked the empathy of his father and just did not connect with me.
I was 15 when we moved to Chittur and that was the beginning of my association with Dr. K K Sudevan. Dr. Sudevan was not only the family doctor, but a family friend to boot. He was just a MBBS and hailed from a humble farming background, although he became a farmer with consierable landholdings later. He had a roaring clinical practice, mainly poor people. He also owned a medical shop adjacent to his clinic where I spent considerable hours assisting in its operations - my first experience of being associated with an organization. Dr. Sudevan was one of the pioneers to understand the commercialization of Medical business. He had a fully integrated set up, with a 8 bed nursing home, a medical shop and later on a clinical lab - all integrated. A very god fearing man, he was so much into Bhagawat Gita that he used to greet people with 'Hari Ohm' instead of the perfunctionary 'Good Morning'. A very conservative doctor, he knew the medical history of the entire family without having to refer to any files. He was a part of our family. He nursed me through my slip disc, my father's first heart attack, my sister's peptic ulcer and my mothers knee pain. One could discuss anything with him and one did. He had all the time in the world and even made house calls when we were too sick to visit his clinic. We could also call him anytime if required.
Once I got a job in HPCL and moved on, the link with the family physician slowly faded away. Dr.Sudevan died relatively young in his early 50's due to a cardiac problem. Perhaps it was the stress of listening and empathising with all those people and their family that killed him - one never knows.
Later on in life the health was managed by high profile doctors in super speciality hospitals, who looked more like corporate honchos than the nice and sweet neighbourhood doctor one prefered to see. But life moves on.
The quality of treatment is definitely better in these Superspeciality hospital, but somehow I miss the emotional bond I had with Dr.C V Raman or Dr. Sudevan. They were genuinely good human beings and took an interest in our welfare. The modern day doctors, I suspect, look upon us as a money making opportunity.
Dr C V Raman and Dr Sudevan were not the greatest of physicians technically, but I will choose their humaneness over technical competence any day in the long run. They were incarnations of 'Dhanwantari'.
It is why the Doctor who treated me in Kuwait was such a welcome change.
