The Spinal Foundation has its inaugural today for a great reason. May 26 is the birthday of Padma Shri, Dr Mary Verghese. She was an MBBS alumnus of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, a great doctor, and the visionary who championed India’s first specialised center for rehabilitation 50 years ago as well as the first in-patient Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Department in India at CMC Vellore.
She also started several courses for allied health professions in rehabilitation. She became a paraplegic in a road accident in 1954 and a wheelchair user for life.
Dr Suranjan Bhattacharji – former Director of CMC, Vellore - had the privilege to be the student, intern, doctor and friend of Dr Mary Verghese. He was also the person who carried forward her pioneering work. In late 2012, he shared his thoughts on Dr Mary Verghese with an Alumnus of the Mary Verghese Institute of Rehabilitation.
I was undergoing rehabilitation at CMC Vellore following a cervical-level spinal cord injury when it was time for his farewell function in March 2013. Going to this event was my first longish outing in several months and gave me an idea of how much more independent I could get.
I had the privilege to read out excerpts of Dr Suranjan Bhattacharji views to get the Celebration of Service by him for four decades going. It was inspiring, and it is apt to recall in this, the first post of The Spinal Foundation Blog, as to how Dr Mary Verghese and Dr Suranjan Bhattacharji shaped the world of rehabilitation in India.
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Dr Mary Verghese’s courage is the most abiding memory.
She had vision. She was able to recognise that perhaps even the accident had a purpose, and that God can turn a tragedy into something beautiful, into a triumph, and into a way of helping other people.
She had perseverance. She had to teach herself many things. Her course was in America. Eating, dressing and all the activities of daily living would have been western. She had to adapt herself. She did that and did so with great determination.
She had faith in God and felt she was not doing this work alone. In those early days, her example was so outstanding, and she was also such a brilliant person that she drew significant support by inspiring others.
If she were not courageous and brave, this would not have happened. She had family support that was invaluable. She received a fair amount of support at CMC that also helped her. But even with all the support, only a few grasp those opportunities. She did.
The magical part of this work was that she was on a wheelchair and so she never had to tell patients that life is possible after a spinal cord injury, as they could see she was diagnosing, treating and also operating on them from a wheelchair.
She recognized the importance of networking. She set up the Indian Association for Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and was the first president of this association. The group realised that unless you network, the specialty could not grow.
Dr Mary Verghese also realised that she had to help allied health professionals. She trained her first occupational therapist and a physical therapist. She also got volunteers whom she trained to do a variety of tasks. Later on people came from abroad, and started formal courses.
She recognised that there was a need for a postgraduate program in this specialty for medical professions and set up the Diploma in PMR in CMC. She had a handle on the outreach and the research. She appeared to cover everything and that was another reason for her success. She did not focus on any one aspect, although she was alone and therefore had to work very, very hard to do all this.
She was not just a physician and surgeon, but because of her experience in struggling with physical challenges, there was an authenticity to the plans she made for Rehab. That is why Rehab is so astoundingly different from everything else- where it is the doctor making it. For Rehab, it was a person on a wheelchair who had planned it. So all the frills were left out and the core was strengthened.
We were lucky that the PMR department and Rehab were started by somebody who was not just intelligent, brave, persevering, visionary and skilled with her hands, but who knew the things patients needed and made them available, as she was also on a wheelchair. She was also very, very anxious about costs. We cannot be expensive, she emphasized. That’s what Rehab has sought to do.
It is Dr Mary Verghese’s courage and leadership and faith that I still look back to and am encouraged and inspired.
Dr Mary Verghese had the ability to inspire.
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We welcome your thoughts, ideas, and especially criticisms on the blog posts, as that is only waywe can help each of us in an ever-improving manner.
Sashank Vaibhav Allu
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