21 Memories of our dear campus doctor P.C.George

REC Calicut Campus is spread over almost 400 acres and nearly 500 or more families were staying in the campus even in the 70s. Number of residents including teaching, nonteaching staff and students were more than 2000 at that time itself. We have a small health centre for immediate attention to the health problems of the residents. Two doctors, two nurses, a pharmacist and an attender were available as staff members. 5 beds were available for inpatients in our mini-hospital. One of the doctors, designated as Resident Medical Officer used to stay in the campus. RMO is supposed to attend to any case emergency round the clock. Most of the common medicines were available and if medicines are to be bought from outside, medical reimbursement of the expenses were available, if it is purchased with prescription of the medical officers. If the patient requires specialised help or hospitalization, the doctors used to send the patient to Calicut Medical College in the college vehicle, if available.

But one major problem we were facing was that very few doctors who took up job remained with us for long. The remuneration was not good enough obviously. Few doctors who joined were from health services who have retired as senior physicians, mostly in administrative work like DMO or so. Most of these doctors were taking up this job as a leisurely one just to while away the time. It was after such a big break that we got a doctor couple in the campus. Dr. P.C.George was  a former District Medical Officer and his wife  a gynaecologist. Dr.George  joined as  our RMO and his wife took up a  job in a nearby hospital. Dr George  was hailing from Mavelikkara and he belonged  to an eminent family including Dr.P.C.Varghese, Professor of Civil Engineering  and later Director of I.I.T.Madras  and Dr, Varghese  Kurien (Amul  Kurien) responsible for the  white (milk) revolution in India. Hardly 5 ft in height, quite heavily built, regular dress white kurta and dhothi. While  he walks up, it will look like a small  elephant  slowly walking towards you. But he was a very kind doctor and loved by all, especially the teaching staff of the college. He had just one child, grown up, occasionally seen with them as she was studying elsewhere. But Dr.George loved  the campus children  very much and he was ready to play with them with his hefty body. While going for an evening walk, we could see him chit chatting with some one sitting on a culvert on the main road sharing his experience with those willing to hear. Often, I was also a listener to his stories.

To me and my family, he was more than a doctor, a father figure and member of our family. Once he asked me “Hey Mohandas, what is the point of you people from Kuttanad, the granary of Kerala, coming here and living on the ration rice? After 30 - 40 years of working here, what you will have will be a few kids and some broken chairs. Here, you will have to spend whatever you get for purchasing rice, vegetables and gas and practically nothing left. If you work in a place near your native place, even if the salary is smaller, you can eat good food and live happily saving what you get.” Yes, to a certain extent this was true, we were just 8 hours travel from our native village. But think of the thousands of Keralites working in faraway places like Assam and Delhi for their daily bread.

Let  me share a few personal  incidents  with that  loving elderly  father figure.

As you know, the early mornings are always the busiest time in our families, particularly for the mother of the house. Children have to go to school, their breakfast, take away parcel for lunch to be made ready, giving them bath if they are too small, keeping their uniform ready etc and in between   satisfying the demands of the husband for several cups of tea. It was such a day for us, both our children get up early along with their mother and they were playing near the back door. Our son’s favourite   game was to play with opening and closing the doors and our daughter occasionally joined  him in this game. Usually they will be waiting for the  Newspaper to  be collected and compete  in who is the first to collect the paper and give to their dad. During this  time, playing at the front door. Suddenly we heard our daughter crying our “Mummy, my finger is gone”. As I approached her, I found her little finger of the right hand was caught inside the door. Carefully  I released  her finger but more than 80 % of the  finger was crushed and was hanging out. I took her in my arms and rushed to our RMO’s house. Fortunately he  was present in his house. I knocked at his door, a bit rudely, and I heard him shouting “Who is this fellow troubling me in the early  morning?” . As he opened the door and saw me with the child all his anger vanished. The hospital staff will come only by 9AM. He took the bunch of keys and we walked up to the hospital.  He opened the dressing room and started giving a few stitches on her little finger. As the third stich was applied, part of her finger became blue as blood circulation was difficult. Doctor said “It seems your daughter will have to live with nine fingers, any way let me try.” He carefully released the third stich, took a plaster and made a pad out of it and kept the pad below the finger and applied a soft bandage. He said we will wait for 24 hours and if you are lucky, the  finger will be saved. We returned home, her little brother was really scared and was on the point of breakdown when he saw  his sister with bandage. He knew that something wrong has happened to his sister and as he was responsible for that obviously the feeling of guilt rather than due to his mother’s scolding. We were eagerly waiting for the day to be passed and next day we took her to the hospital. Fortunately as the bandage was  removed, we found normal colour has slowly come back to the finger. Thanks to the timely intervention of our dear doctor, her finger was saved. He said jokingly “ Now that  your daughter will  have all fingers, please send half the dowry that you must have  saved for the wedding of the girl with nine fingers.”  If it was any other younger doctor, it was almost certain that only a stub would have remained on her little finger.  After a few months, only a small scar remained over the wound. She must be remembering her brother whenever she looks at her small finger , though she may not remember the doctor who saved it. As  parents, we  can never forget  his  kindness .

On some other occasion, when my wife and daughter had an attack of chicken pox, he   helped us with his kind words and timely treatment. As  I had already been exposed to chicken pox and could get leave for taking care  of them, it was  not very difficult. Even our  maid servant was kind enough to work for us  while they were  bedridden. Our doctor used to remark that those who gets chicken pox, should eat chicken at least after the initial five days of fever   is over.

However, some of our colleagues, especially those among the non-teaching staff, were not happy with him. Those who approached him for fake medical certificate   for taking leave or sign the medical reimbursement papers for medicines brought by them without prescription were among this group. They were trying to   get a chance to oust him. An opportunity came up as one child of a UD clerk got burns on her arms and doctor applied some medicine and send her home. But it seems the kid’s mother applied some country medicine over the burnt area and it became septic soon. The child’s parents and his friends complained to the authorities that this was due to the negligence of our campus doctor. The Principal ordered an enquiry into this incident and our doctor did not wait for the enquiry but resigned the job telling that “I don’t want your pittance of the remuneration that you are giving, I can work elsewhere if you don’t want me.”. After he left, we had to wait   for several years for an RMO   to take care of the residents of the campus.  We heard that he and his wife had several years of active medical care in his native place Mavelikkara after he left REC.