The GMC Chronicle

Greetings from the GMC family!

We are writing to you to let you know of the release of the official magazine of Grant Medical College, for the year 2021; "The GMC CHRONICLE," sharing chronicles of the past and present, of our majestic 176-year-old institute and of those who have walked down its roads with memories to share.

Though this magazine was intended to be released as a hard copy in the year 2020, due to unavoidable reasons, it wasn't feasible. However, the new magazine committee for the year 2021 took charge from where things had a staccato and proudly brings to you an online version of "The GMC Chronicle", in an attempt to rekindle the GMC spirit within all the GMCites.

First and foremost, we'd like to thank our Dean sir and all our dearest professors, for their guidance and support; thank you very much!

We'd like to extend our gratitude towards the respected alumnus, who had shared their wonderful stories and memories with us! We are sure that all the GMCites will enjoy reading them, as much as they had enjoyed creating them.

We have shared many of their articles in our magazine 'The GMC Chronicle', and the remaining will be shared through our social media pages, for which the links have been provided; at the end of our email and on the last page of our magazine.

Hope you have a pleasant read!

# You can download the magazine via the links given below.

Standard version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fzZGl2pTlnqztS3XaV5lTwx9Iw3XhQV0/view?usp=drivesdk

HD version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GSHIVDsF1HDQ1LjRSie-6nLnOTI4vNSx/view?usp=drivesdk

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How did we prepare ourselves for the war against COVID-19 pandemic?

An educational demonstration was held at St. George Hospital, CST Mumbai addressing various essential issues like precautions to be taken regarding Covid-19, proper method to take throat and nasal swab by Dr. Shrinivas Chavan (ENT HOD) , correct way to use PPE kits, etc.

Such frequently conducted demonstrations on this topic have been of great help to doctors, nurses and other staff while treating patients.

A little ray of sunshine amidst the COVID-19 storm that has hit us all.

Sir JJ Hospital celebrates its 175th anniversary since its inaugration❤️

175 years! Legend says that this is almost equal to the time required to read Park's textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine😜
15th May 2020 marks the 175th anniversary of JJ Hospital and what better time to say "175 years of patient care" than during these testing times of the COVID-19 Pandemic where the hospital staff is working tirelessly to contain something which has threatened the whole of humanity.
We are proud to be associated with an institute of such historical significance and hope that its glory never ceases increasing.❤️

Massive respect for you both and every personnel working on the frontline to save this nation. No combination of words will ever be enough to describe how grateful we are to you. Here's wishing you a happy and even more so, a safe wedding anniversary! 😄

On our marriage anniversary we both are treating corona patients, because treating our patient is our only goal of life.....

Here are some pictures from JJ Hospital where doctors are using Face Shields donated by Maker's Asylum to treat COVID patients.

The GMC Chronicle Team expresses its heartfelt gratitude to Maker's Asylum for their solidarity with the frontline workers. We request all of you to donate funds to their noble initiative.

15th April 1851 , the first batch of students from Grant Medical College college graduated with the degree 'GGMC' - Graduates of Grant Medical College. Its an appropriate time to acknowledge its Alumni as the Institution completes its 175 years since foundation.
Atmaram Pandurang Tadkharkar, a personality you might have found in your history textbooks, also lies in the golden pages of your own Grant Medical College.
Dr. Atmaram Pandurang was one of the eight students of the first batch of the Grant Medical College(1845). Alongside being a responsible physician who
set up camps and ran vaccination campaigns for eradication of small pox, he also was a humanitarian and reformist who pointed out obsolete and irrational
traditions. He was cofounder of Prarthana Samaj, which worked towards denouncing the caste system, introducing widow-remarriage, encouraging female education
and abolishing child-marriage. He believed minimum age of girls for marriage should be 20 years. He worked on Article 14 of the Contagious Diseases Act 1868 which is still being refered to till date. The graduation certificate of this Atmaram Pandurang was framed and was displayed in the old GMC building. His son Dnyaneshwar Atmaram Tadkharkar, who
was also a GMCite, worked at the Haffkine Institute and served as a director of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine at Guindy and worked in Kodaikanal on Anopheles mosquitoes.

"A Ukraine Jew, trained in the schools of European science, saves the lives of Hindus and Muslims and is decorated by the descendant of William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great"

Sir Waldemar Haffkine (1860-1930) was a bacteriologist who initially worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed a vaccine for cholera and tested it on himself.
To further prove its efficacy, he migrated to West Bengal (1893), where the Cholera epidemic had claimed countless lives. His vaccine proved to be a boon to the natives and mortality plummeted by 75%. He then went to Bombay to fight the plague epidemic of 1896 and established a laboratory for the same, which was later named after him. During this period, he worked extensively in Room 000 of Grant Medical College, which went on to become the Pharmacology Lecture Hall. His efforts yielded the first vaccine against plague which he again tested on himself and later on prisoners. Mortality dropped by 50%.
His efforts prompted Queen Victoria to bestow a knighthood upon him in 1897 and Lord Joseph Lister to name him "a savior of humanity". Today, mankind is facing yet another pandemic and has to rely on men like him for its survival.
Even though he wasn't a student or teacher at GMC, his perseverance and selflessness are qualities that every GMCite should seek to imbibe.

Photos:
1. Sir Waldemar Haffkine on a stamp.
2. He presented a method of vaccination against cholera to the Paris Biological Community. He came to West Bengal during the Cholera epidemic in 1894.
3. Waldemar Haffkin then vaccinated local population of Calcutta against cholera
4. Dr. Haffkin at Bombay Research Laboratory 1898

Sir Robert Grant brought perseverance and Dr. Charles Morehead brought expertise, but what neither could bring was money and land. Fortunately, they were the contemporaries of Sir JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY(1783-1859), a Parsi cotton and o***m trader, originally from Navsari.
The quintessential self-made man, Jamsetjee was orphaned at the tender age of 16. Over the years, Jamsetjee established himself as an enterprising and shrewd businessman and amassed a fabulous wealth.
From picking up empty soda and brandy bottles for his uncle to having 2 crore rupees to his name by the age of 40, Sir Jejeebhoy's life was not without its fair share of adventure. On the 4th voyage to China, his ship was captured by the French and he was imprisoned for a time at the Cape of Good Hope and rendered almost penniless. Nevertheless, he persisted.

Having experienced the miseries of poverty himself, he was continuously engaged in charity and did not discriminate on the basis of religion of caste, creed or religion. He donated to innumerable institutions, ranging from the eponymous hospital, art school, dharamshala and Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (coincidentally named after a GMCite).
He also contributed to newspapers like the Bombay Samachar and the Bombay Times, today known as The Times of India.
The Mahim Causeway was paid for entirely by his wife.
Sir Jejeebhoy purchased a grassland and allowed the cattle to graze there free of cost. For this reason, that area came to be known as Charni Road.
In total, he donated an astronomical sum of 24,59,736 rupees!
The British gave him due recognition, first in the form of a Knighthood in 1842 and later in the form of a Baronetcy in 1858. He was the first Indian to receive these honours.
He was one of India's earliest advocates of women's education and also was an ardent animal lover and founded the Bombay Panjrapole. He was also known for never indulging in bribery and promoting non-violence.

He is rightly regarded as 'Bombay' s finest son'. A man whom every GMCite should hope to emulate.

Whilst the whole world celebrates the World Health Day, Doctors all over the globe fearlessly fight the abominable pandemic befallen upon us.
Today, the whole GMC family grieves the loss of one of its own family members, Dr. Jitendra Rathod of 1976 batch ,due to COVID-19 at the age of 58.
He was an associate specialist cardio-thoracic surgeon at University hospital of Wales. Dr Rathod shall continue to inspire generations of GMCites and doctors around the world through his selfless service amidst this deadly disease.
Let us all take a moment, to offer our condolences and special prayers for the departed soul🙏🌺
Rip sir🙏 ☮️

"He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all." The aforementioned quote belongs to Sir William Osler (1849-1919), often described as the Father of Modern Medicine. His greatest achievement lies in shifting medical education from lecture halls to the patient's bedside and the establishment of medical residency and clinical postings for undergraduate students.
But long before Osler's time, this idea of focusing on practical knowledge over didactic lectures had already been put into practice at an Indian institute- Grant Medical College, Bombay. And the man behind it was none other than its co-founder and first principal, Dr. Charles Morehead (1807-1882). Dr. Morehead was a Surgeon in the staff of Sir Robert Grant, the Governor of Bombay and on the latter's request, founded the Bombay Medical and Physical Society.
His aim for the College was not an imitation of the colleges in Calcutta or Madras which were clearly intended for creating mere servants of the state, but the creation of independent medical practitioners.
He introduced Clinical teaching long before it was made a part of the curriculum of medical education in Great Britain or anywhere else. It was primarily due to his exertions, that the diploma of Bombay University awarded to students of Grant Medical College was accepted as equal to those of the medical schools in the United Kingdom.
A strict disciplinarian and a stickler for punctuality and regularity, Dr. Morehead was known for making late night visits to check on critically ill patients and personally checked dispensing of drugs and punctuality of attendants. He also helped his students after they had graduated by giving up his large practice among the native patients as soon as the first batch of students had qualified for independent practice.
Photos:
1. The bust of Dr. Charles Morehead which is currently lying in the central library without any mention of even his name, let alone his contributions.
2. A photograph from his time at Grant Medical College.

Many people know Sir Robert Grant and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy as the ones behind the inception of GMC and Sir JJ Hospital.
While their contributions were undoubtedly vital, it was actually Dr. John McLennan who set the ball rolling for GMC and JJ Hospital and all other medical colleges that followed it.
Dr. McLennan was Physician General of the Army during the 18th century. In 1826, he was asked by Governor Elphinstone of Bombay to set up a school to teach modern medicine to the Indians. The staff at Native Medical School, located at the site presently occupied by St. George Hospital, consisted of Dr. McLennan, two clerks and one peon. It was during this time that he translated many medical textbooks to Marathi, some which can still be found in the libraries of Bombay University and Mumbai Maratha Grantha Sanghralaya. However, the school had to be shut down after six years largely due lack of an attached hospital and lack of staff.
Despite this setback, his contributions were given due recognition by the founders of GMC, Sir Robert Grant and Dr. Charles Morehead.
He also headed the Board of Examiners created to assess the first batch of students emerging from this college.
In his name there are three scholarships, one each in medicine, surgery and midwifery as well as a silver medal in the latter.

Photos:
1. Dr. John McLennan’s photograph is from Dr. John McLennan Silver Medal in Midwifery won by late Dr. Anna Moreshwar Kunte in 1870. The other side shows Grant Medical College.
2. One of the books that he translated into Marathi.

Greetings from the GMC Magazine Team!

✨ Today we celebrate the 177th foundation day of Grant Medical College! ✨

This is a day when the entire fraternity has a chance to reflect not only on the beginnings of college and its founders but also take pride in consistently being amongst the top 10 institutes of the country!

In July 1838, a meeting was held and people started a fund for the sole purpose of creating a medical college. The foundation stone was laid on 30th March 1843 and the building was built by 1845.

Today let's take a moment to pay respect to each and every person who had a role to play in making GMC what it is, and pledge to make it greater than it has ever been!💕

Dr. Henry Vandyke Carter (1831-1897) was a Professor of Anatomy at Grant Medical College from 1858 to 1863 and in 1876, he went on to become 'Principal of Grant Medical College and First Physician of JJ Hospital'
He was also the illustrator for the very first edition of Grey's Anatomy for which he was set to receive equal credit as Henry Grey but after the latter's objections, his credit was removed from the book's title (though he was still credited for character illustration)

In solidarity with the rest of our brethren, we reiterate this small-yet-vital piece of advice to aid our fight against this pandemic.
Medical professionals all over the globe are out there risking their and their family's lives so that mankind may survive this calamity. They've sacrificed sleep, food and relationships. They're underprepared, understaffed, underequipped and they're scared (Actually, that's how they always are but that's a tale for another day).
And despite these staggering handicaps, they're out there. Because they made an oath. An oath to serve humanity.
The least that you can do to aid them is to stay out of their way. Remember, the existence of our species hangs in the balance. This is a war unlike any we've seen and we are not winning. Not yet. And friendly fire is the last thing we need right now

So keep practicing social distancing, keep washing your hands and keep faith in science!

Braving the frontline

On the morning of 6th March,My JR in radiology and I were discussing the COVID outbreak(no cases had been reported in India yet) and came to a conclusion that we healthcare workers are at most risk, especially in a government set up like JJ. Lo and behold: that same evening,i was asked to report at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport the next morning,to be inducted into the COVID-19 screening team. It seemed as if ksrma had struck me,and how. I can't actually describe what i felt that night. Anxiety,panic, excitement,fear. First week of internship, still can't believe I'm on the cusp of becoming a doctor and here i am at the frontline of a potential pandemic😂. But then a thought struck me: you don't get to be an active participant in the prevention of a worldwide outbreak everyday in your life,do you? This opportunity would be hard to pass,coming so early in my professional career. And off i went to the Airport.
The job seemed easy, just stamping forms and checking passengers' temperature. But when we had hoards of them( 3000+ on day shifts and 10000+ on night shifts),it became increasingly tiring. However,with the co-operation of the airport staff and my hardworking team of colleagues,the job became enjoyable. On the one hand,there were passengers who were irritated by the whole process because they couldn't grace the Mumbai roads in a jiffy,but on the other,there were those who appreciated our work and thanked us for our courage,tact and acumen. And that was our driving force: People looked upto us. We could not let them down.
Over the days,it became slightly monotonous. But then came the most memorable moment of my Airport stint: Attending to and treating a passenger who convulsed while standing in the queue. This made me realise that no matter how seemingly boring mundane a job i do,my not-so-perfect clinical skills will definitely come to use. This incident invigorated me more. As my Airport posting comes to an end,i now understand the importance of the role us medicos play in shouldering the hopes and responsibilities of society at large. Kudos to all for upholding the principles of the noble profession. And of course: Go Karona,Karona Go😂🙈

Written by Prateek Mohapatra.
Our team of interns includes Manasi Rege, Prateek Mohapatra and Atul Gavit

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