‘A surgeon should be dedicated and compassionate’

FM Bureau | 10-August-2013

Dr Arivazhagan is a cardiacthoracic and vascular surgeon in Medi Hope Super Speciality Hospital. He did his MBBS and MS in General Surgery from Bengaluru Medical College. He did Mch from Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Bengaluru. Dr Arivazhagan specialises in beating heart, Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) and valve surgeries. With a rich experience of over 20 years, he was also a visiting consultant with National Hospital, Colombo, and Male Medicals, Maldives. He has presented papers at national as well as international conferences and seminars

By FM Bureau

Inspiration to become a surgeon

I come from Kolar, a remote place in Karnataka. My father was an employee at Bharat Gold Mine and mother was a homemaker. We had to struggle a lot during my childhood. There were no good treatment facilities at the village and the people had to come to Bengaluru for consulting doctors and for major surgeries. The pathetic condition of my village saddened me and with God’s grace and with my parents’ blessings, I excelled in my studies and decided to take MBBS.

After watching surgeons performing operations to save precious lives, a desire to become a surgeon grew in me. 

Surgical experience

As I am a cardiac thoracic surgeon, every surgery remains memorable for me. Still the surgery which I had done on a patient whose heart function was poor and had multiple blocks comes to my mind quite often. Many big hospitals had rejected this particular case and finally the patient came to Medi Hope Super Speciality Hospital. The surgery was successfully carried out and today he is 75 years old and is living a healthy life.

Surgeon’s qualities

A surgeon should have magic in his hands. He should be dedicated and compassionate.

Ethics

Should perform surgery only when necessary and be always available to patients’ call at crucial situations

Improve healthcare system

We should give quality healthcare for patients with the help of the best technology. If possible, every hospital should take initiative to conduct camps in the rural areas and the poor people should be given free medicines and surgeries. I always make it a point to conduct camps and serve the poor and recently we conducted a camp where 30 people underwent eye surgeries free of cost.