The ITI General Hospital

A very key component of any kid growing up in the ITI complex is the ITI General hospital a large hospital complex with different wards and consulting rooms. Very often after a fall from the cycle the hospital was the place to go to dress the would after consulting one of the doctors and on a typical day of these times some ten people could be seen waiting in a line to see some five to six doctors who were on duty ..and as children of employees the treatment was free and owing to this establishment as children health care of a fairly advanced kind was handy and the hospital had almost modern amenities and a very key aspect of the hospital were distinguished medical practitioners of the time being consultants or visiting consultants.

ITI Hospital

ITI was a kind place and a generous place and looked like some foreign country and during the crucial growing-up years gave support a-plenty. This hospital for us was like a god father to whom we could say "I feel feverish"  or "stomach pain" for the past few days and the system gave care that a mother would give its offspring. I understood how difficult health-care could be outside with some hospitals treating patients with disdain. I got a similar behavior from ITI hospital recently and I was upset that the hospital has changed from its magnanimous posture to one of severity.

The modus operandi was simple..take the hospital book to a counter for registering the date and then meet a doctor who would inscribe the medicines and then go to the compounder section where the medicines would be given. Paracetomol..pencillin..lidemicin...cough syrup..phenorgon all popular and widely used medicines. In case one does not have abottle to carry cough syrup on could gulp a dose then and there itself and there were many children to enjoy this refreshment.Dr. Venkat rao; Dr. Sheshadiri, Dr. Venugopal; Dr. Alawandi; Dr.Manimegalai; Dr. Hemavathi, Dr. Narayanan ; Dr. Ramachandran ; Dr. Radhakrishnan; Dr. Jayaram; Dr. Hanumanthu the child specialist;
Dr. Kumaraswamy are all few names that come to my mind and these doctors were given high respect by the people around.There was one Dr. Chacko who was with orthopaedics for a brief while.

Then there were a line of specialized consultants who would come to the hospital on a couple of days a week and they were the best in the trade in the city. Dr Sampath Loganathan the child specialist, Dr. Jayaram a distinguished heart specialist; Dr. Eswar an eye specialist;  Dr.Leela Manikkoth ,Dr Kapadia followed by Dr. Teja Shetty as dentists. Dr. Leela Manikkoth was flamboyant and  suave and added a lace of charm to the otherwise austere profession.Incidentally Dr. Leela Manikkoth was a student of one of  my mother's cousins Dr. Madhavan Nambiar at KMC in Manipal.

There were many occasions where we rushed to the Hospital in the night in a emergency and the duty doctor at casuality was very much there to provide support.Through this write-up I have basically paid tribute to these Doctors and the ITI hospital for the apparently selfless service it provided to its dependents from time to time. I have also visited the private clinics of some of these doctors as a child. The clinic of Dr. Sampath Loganathan on Edward's road which is close to Cunningham road for treatment for whooping cough and the clinic of Dr. Teja Shetty in V V Puram.

I only hope that the ITI General Hospital does not deviate itslef from  its values and ethos of its past and continue to provide the care it did to that errant patient who suddenly walked into its place with some simple or complicated ailment and provide treatment and solace as it always did with that compassionate outfit that the future public would remember it as I do for stretching its hand at times of public need in a right and well behaved manner.