Dear Friends,
Earlier this month, we opened the Centre for Advanced NeuroSciences at the K J Somaiya Hospital and Research Centre.
My father had gone to Melbourne, Australia to speak at the Parliament of World Religions in December 2009. He had a fall there and hurt his head. He got up and went to his hotel room. A few hours later, he did feel the pain to be unbearable and was taken to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, who promptly admitted him and seeing the head injury performed a brain surgery.
My sister, brother in law and I went there to be with him. The operation was over and my father was in recovery. We were there for a few weeks. He did not make it. He passed away on the 1 of January 2010.
We got to see what a ‘Neuro’ ward is like. Each condition manifested itself very differently in each patient. Based on what part of the brain had been affected - patients behaved differently. Unlike a heart condition, a kidney condition, or a liver condition - where one can guess the effect of a malfunction - here we saw each affected person behaving very differently. Often - unrecognisable from what they may have been like before their condition.
My father was recovering before he passed away. At that time he was shifted to a Centre for rehabilitation. We did think that we should prepare for his return to India and find a place that could provide such a service. And I did return to India to look for such a place. To my disappointment, I was told that Mumbai did not have such places.
And then my father died. So that was it.
Or was it?
I thought that some day, I would build a top class hospital, a place where those who could and also those who could not afford should be able to go. When my father was taken to the Alfred Hospital, he was already fading - they did not know who he was or whether he had health insurance. They took him in and operated.
I always thought that teaching hospitals should be the first place people should want to go to when they need treatment. In the USA, in Boston where I also studied, there are so many teaching hospitals affiliated to Harvard University. Everyone would like to go there for treatment. In India, people do not prefer to go to these hospitals.
I wanted to change that. And so we worked on adding a Superspecialty wing to our hospital. last year, when my aunt and Trustee Leelaben Kotak had an onco-condition that needed an urgent surgery of the intestine, our own Doctors performed the very difficult surgery successfully.
In fact, Dr. Manisha Bobade (our CEO) and her team who are doing an amazing job of leading the hospital, have recently got the entire hospital NABH accredited (Few teaching hospitals opt to get themselves accredited).
About two years ago, Chaitanya - the owner of the contracting company that built the Ashtavakra hostel mentioned that his father and cousin would like to see me, because his cousin was a Neurosurgeon and wanted to help build a world class department of neuro-surgery.
His in-laws (Nimishbhai and Jalpaben) visited me with their cousins Dr. Abhida Shah and we spoke about this. An old dream that I had in Melbourne when I had left was rekindled and a commitment renewed. A commitment to having a superb Department of Neurosciences and also Rehabilitation. Dr. Abhida brought in Dr. Atul Goyal, and we spoke about trading dreams.
With our own commitment and with the generous and continuing assistance of The Inner Wheel of Mumbai Queen’s Necklace this dream started becoming a reality. The team of Doctors at our hospital around Neurosciences started growing and last year we did about 300 surgeries. So we dreamt of a larger centre, with dedicated operating theatres, a dedicated Intensive Care Unit and whatever is needed to deliver world class care. And so we inaugurated the Centre for Advanced Neurosciences. I am hoping that in time, this will be the best centre for Neurosciences and rehabilitation in India and beyond.
