By SURAJ NANDREKAR
I woke up to the shocking news of Goa’s one of the finest Doctors – Dr Manjunath Desai, passing away.
It’s not only a great loss to Goa Medical College but to every Goan as he had saved the lives of thousands of patients irrespective of their social status.
A soft-spoken specialist, who not only saved many lives but also gave confidence to the patients’ relatives that the patient would be safe.
A magician at his work, Dr Manjunath, a good friend, often spoke of how lives can be saved if people have basic knowledge of dos and don’ts after an heart attack or cardiac arrest.
I first met him five years ago, a day before my nephew’s wedding, as we were preparing to leave for a wedding in Karnataka, suddenly my uncle got a major heart attack.
I immediately called up Dr Oscar Rebello, who gave me the mobile numbers of Dr Manjunath and Dr Shirish. I dialled Dr Manjunath; he asked me about the details and said, don’t worry, please reach GMC immediately.
Despite being a Sunday, he reached the GMC hospital within a few minutes.
He came and asked me what had happened. I told him we were leaving for the wedding and this happened.
After looking at the reports, he said it was a critical situation as reports show 85 p.c heart damage due to blockages, majorly due to smoking.
He said he had to do angiography and subsequent angioplasty immediately, and anything could happen even on the operation table.
At 2 pm, he started the procedure, and around 3 pm he came out and said Mr Suraj, Dr Pradeep Naik, the Dean, had called me to enquire about your patient.
“I know you are a high-profile journalist, but our treatment protocol is the same for everyone,” he said jokingly. We both smiled.
I told him about the situation, and there was a wedding in the family, and the groom was also with us in hospital, which is why I had called the dean.
He said, don’t worry, your uncle is safe now.
“You can go and celebrate the wedding now. There is nothing to worry about. My team will take care of him. You called me at the right time. I was supposed to leave for Canacona for some personal work,” he confidently said.
As he said, my uncle was saved, and till today he is in good health.
This was Dr Manjunath. He saved not only a life but also a wedding.
What was unique about this great soul was that he did all this without knowing who the patient was and whose relative he was.
After that, I referred to him many patients, and he used to help them based on emergency.
Our friendship started growing as he read my articles on the health sector in Herald and later Goemkarponn and messaged me appreciating a few.
Recently when I called him to inquire about a patient, he jokingly said, “Suraj, when you call us, we almost get a heart attack. You will be black-listed from GMC.”
“You know too much about GMC,” he said.
We both had a hearty laugh, and he said ,” your patient is stable and angiography would be done at a later date. Don’t tell me to do the angiography immediately, bypassing the queue. There is no emergency, and more severe patients are awaiting the procedure.”
I said, “doctor, I trust you”, and that was the final goodbye from this great human being.
Goa will miss you forever doctor.
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