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A Life of Change: The Autobiography of a Doctor HEALTH is a primary issue of concern for everyone today. With lifestyle diseases more rampant today than ever, the medical profession is a booming sector. It is a sound business venture to invest copious amounts of money to train doctors who are bound to deliver handsome returns. With everyone insisting on settling for nothing but the best medical assistance they can afford, it is not a Herculean task to convince patients to undergo expensive procedures where a simpler and cheaper one could do better.
Born in 1922 in Hubli, he was truly inspired by his maternal grandfather. Like him he wanted to be a forest officer, but fate and both his grandfather and uncle urged him against it and medical sciences it was! He grew up in a very humble environment where even though money was limited, it did not dampen their spirits or give them sleepless nights. Early on he saw abject poverty all around him, which moulded him into the person he became. Throughout his medical journey, as a student as well as a doctor, he imbibed the frugal and effective methods that all good doctors of that time followed. These experiences taught him that good medical aids need not cost a fortune. He came back from Britain to his own country full of zest to provide help where it was needed most. He studied medicine at a time when caring for a patient was an integral part of health care. He believed that most diseases could be diagnosed on the basis of a patient’s history and a careful physical examination. He was very much against the battery of tests that most doctors resort to today. He took to plastic surgery of leprosy and burn patients out of compassion for them. A need to make them feel normal again coaxed him to start rehabilitation programmes for them despite resistance from certain quarters. He was instrumental in alleviating some of the stigma associated with leprosy even in the medical profession, not only in India but also abroad. In Britain, he worked with the likes of Sir Harold Gillies who is hailed as the father of modern plastic surgery. There he learnt the importance of being unorthodox in his approach towards problems. Improvisation was the need of the hour which later helped him serve his country better. He went on to use indigenous material at his disposal much to the surprise and chagrin of those around him. Once he even substituted a chicken coop wire in place of a rubberised mould when none was available. Developing countries like ours are blindly aping the West and importing new-fangled gadgets that are dispensable. What we require today are more visionaries like Dr Antia, who believed in thinking out of the box and making do wonderfully well even when equipped with hardly any sophisticated equipment. He believed that holistic healing and not just medical science are the answer to the health concerns of the day.
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A Life Of Change
is the autobiography of Dr Noshir H. Antia who is heralded as the
pioneer of plastic surgery in India. This book opens our eyes to a man
who was a doctor of the masses, every bit involved in their welfare.
He realised that health could not be pursued as a separate entity to
be achieved by medicine alone; it had to include and count in other
equally important factors. Social, cultural and economic mores of a
society go a long way in dealing with the health aspect of that group.