Overcoming adversity to achieve medical excellence and serve society
New Delhi :
The life story of Dr. S.A. Ali is a testament to resilience and determination, illustrating how an individual can surmount varied challenges to achieve success. Born in a poor family in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa, Dr. Ali’s transformation from poverty to becoming a revered doctor and professor is truly inspiring.
Dr. Ali is now a prominent figure in the Uttar Pradesh city of Mathura where he runs a clinic. He previously served at the TB Sanatorium in the historic city of Vrindavan.
With an impressive array of qualifications including MBBS, MD, DNB, and MNAMS, as well as diplomas in ultrasound and cardiology, Dr. Ali, an expert in chest-related diseases, has treated over 150,000 patients with a remarkable 99% recovery rate.
Dr. Ali has not forgotten his childhood and the challenges associated with poverty. His encounter with hardships early on has instilled in his character a sense of compassion and magnanimity. And it shows: He does not charge anything from the poor and the needy and at times even provides the necessary medicines to them at no cost.
Reflecting on his childhood, Dr. Ali recounts the struggles his family faced due to his father’s modest income as a tailor. “Getting higher education was a dream,” he says. “I borrowed books and notes from friends, and often walked or borrowed a friend’s bicycle to get around.”
Despite these challenges, Dr. Ali studied tirelessly for over 18 hours a day. Initially aspiring to fulfill his father’s dream of becoming a lawyer, he eventually decided to pursue a career in medicine. “The challenges I faced in my childhood made me feel I should also help people. And now I work with this passion,” he explains.
Dr. Ali’s dedication and hard work earned him a prestigious status from the Indian Medical Association as a professor, a title awarded to only ten doctors for a five-year term, from 2021 to 2026. “The professors and teachers who taught me during my college days were very good. They helped me in every possible way,” he says with gratitude.
His commitment to serving others took him to Vrindavan. “Coming to Vrindavan was all about service,” he states. “Caste or religion had no place in coming here.”
Dr. Ali’s message to the youth is one of perseverance and community involvement. He advises them to “join the society and try to take it to a better state.” He encourages young people to walk or cycle whenever possible, both for health benefits and environmental conservation. “This will strengthen their health and the environment will also be protected by reducing fuel consumption,” he says.
Highlighting the importance of environmental conservation, he urges efforts to enhance water levels in rivers, streams, wells, and ponds. “Meaningful discussions on the environment should continue through political debates, political rallies, and social media,” he asserts.
Dr. Ali also calls on his fellow doctors to engage with the poorer sections of society and government schools to raise awareness about diseases. “They should connect with women groups because after becoming aware, women can give a healthy life to their entire family,” he adds.
In his journey from poverty to becoming a respected doctor, Dr. Ali exemplifies how adversity can be transformed into achievement through hard work, education, and a commitment to helping others.
source: http://www.clarionindia.net / Clarion India / Home> Clarion Special> Editors Pick / by Mohammad Alamullah, Clarion India / June 10th, 2024
Dr. Azra Nalatwad’s forefathers were from a tiny town named Karnul in Andhra pradesh and had migrated to Karnataka. Behind her success of becoming a doctor is an incredible story of hard work and grit that lifted a poor family of weavers to a family of doctors. Dr Azra Nalatwad shared her and her parents’ inspirational story with Awaz-the Voice.
“My parents were extremely hardworking, poor, and struggled to make ends meet, particularly my father, Abdul Khader Karnu used to manually weave traditional saris through wooden looms, as machines had not yet arrived at that time. During his early 20s, after a lot of labour, he would make one saree.”
His family was living hand-to-mouth existence. Though Abdul Khader struggled with poverty, he dreamed big – he was determined to become a doctor. Without any prodding or help, he studied by himself while weaving sarees. Back then, there was no societal help, counselors, or family push to improve his lot. With sheer grit, he started to excel in his studies. He was so brilliant that he was sponsored for his studies in a boarding school. During holidays, he would return home and help with the business of his father and brothers.
“With great tenacity, he finally finished his studies to complete his MBBS and achieved his goal of becoming a doctor, specializing as an ENT physician. He was the first in the family to be so. Our father paved the way to help us all come up as a family.”
Her mother was a schoolteacher when she married Abdul Khader, who persuaded her to complete her MBBS and she became a gynecologist.
Dr. Azra who teaches anatomy at Karnataka Medical College says, “On seeing my parent’s hard work and toil, I resolved to study hard as well. Early in my school days, I wanted to become a doctor. So, I focused on getting admission to MBBS, which I managed to get in the area without going to a hostel to my relief.” Dr. Azra says that her life was made smooth due to the hard work of her parents.
Describing the life around her, she explains, “Around my neighbourhood, most of the girls would do some BST course, and then get married, but my parents spurred me on to do something significant and not hurry to get married. My parents always had a vision that we as a family should not just study and stay at home to be engrossed and wrapped up only in our lives but use our enlightenment to serve the community.”
Dr Azra Nalatwad during her PG course
Azra’s family is a family of doctors. “My eldest sister is a dentist, her husband is a Pathologist (MD) and younger brother Dr. Adil is a neurosurgeon, his wife is a doctor with MBA and MBBS degrees.”
Interestingly, Azra’s husband is the only non-doctor in the family and it was deliberate. She explains: “When it was time for me to get married, my father told me that since there are many doctors in their family, it was better to find my prospective husband in another field. As a family, our conversations revolved around patients and their cases, so my father felt it would be better to get a non-medical groom.”
She married an engineer who working with one of India’s leading software companies.
To follow their father’s advice to his children that they must pay it back to society, Dr. Azra says, The siblings often organize free health checkup camps at Gulbarga.” (Gulbarga is now known as Kalaburagi and has developed to become a city).
She continued, “After writing my entrance test for the post-graduation, my father encouraged me to take the course wherever I get it. He taught me never to throw away opportunities. I was selected for anatomy and it took me to teaching. I did a course to learn ultrasound technology, and in the hospital where my mother was working, I was appointed as a sinologist.”
Dr. Azra Nalatwad’s father died during the COVID surge. “He continued to see patients even during the pandemic; never isolated them and eventually caught the virus and succumbed to it while during his duty in Gulbarga.”
Azra worked at different places like Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Ernakulam in Kerala and now she is in Bengaluru. Mother of two growing-up boys, she travels in her car from Bengaluru to Kolar daily for her anatomy teaching classes.
She explains, “I took up the teaching line in anatomy and was interested in ultrasound, so I went towards the clinical side for one and a half years, I also worked in Manipal Hospital as a senior resident doctor. Night duties in the hospital became problematic with my son as my mother-in-law was not there with me, so I quit that job and came back to teaching.”
She however loves her teaching job, “The new generation of doctors do not talk to their patients because of the long queues of people waiting to see them and they want to see as many patients as possible in a day, so impatiently, they quickly write something out for the patients and push them out to directly go for CT scans, ultrasounds without noting the signs and symptoms in the patient. There is no personal touch or caring. Once again, after their illness is diagnosed, they do not convey to the patient properly what was the problem and what steps to take, nor do they serve the patients their options. The doctors need to show them different modalities of treatment which and required them to communication properly.
“Therefore, I encourage my students to develop doctor-patient communication skills with more empathy and compassion, some emotional attachment is necessary. A patient needs to feel trust in a doctor to return to them. In the early days, a patient would only go back to their favourite doctor holding him in great esteem. These days it is sad to see patients changing the doctor midway during the treatment while complaining that the previous one was noncommittal and indifferent or even rude. These days, most of the doctors are cold and detached.
Dr Azra Nalatwad at the hospital (wearing a black Abayya)
She says her students are becoming aware of the bad doctor-patient cases as newspapers report about incidents of people assaulting doctors. “We guide them so that they will not learn through bitter experience but rather as we say, prevention is better than cure, so we teach them that when they are checking female patients, they need to take their consent and explain why they need to touch her body.”
I tell students, “You suddenly cannot ask her to lift her clothes without her consent, even if one is checking the wrist, the patient needs to be informed what the doctor is doing.” Thus, we teach our students to inform the patient before doing even a tiny procedure or even checking the pulse or temperature as a form of respect between the doctor and the patient and leave the lines open for good communication. Just directly touching the patient does not work nowadays. Teaching is a great responsibility where one does not just teach and go but has to inculcate empathy, sensitivity, communication skills, and other qualities in our students.”
Brightening up, she said, “One thing I am looking forward to is I am going to open my clinic very soon working as a family physician, serving my residents, and treating small illnesses, which do not require complicated procedures.”
She continued, “Why I want to start my clinic in Bengaluru is to ease the burden of the poor in a modest area. Nowadays, for simple sicknesses, people are going to big hospitals and get embroiled in unnecessary expenses and procedures. The OPD fees will be more than Rs. 500 or Rs. 750, an outrageous amount not required for small illnesses which is ripping the pockets of the poor. Things like a common upper respiratory tract infection, ear pain, or other little illnesses do not need an OPD visit but rather a small affordable clinic with a small fee such as Rs. 50 or Rs. 100 to make it very light and easy for them.”
She explained, “In big health centers, there is a lot of corruption going on where they hoodwink patients into paying large amounts of money for unnecessary tests, procedures, and treatment. I feel if I can help the poor in a smaller way such as this evading all the bribing that happens in big clinics and enabling health care at their doorsteps, figuratively. I want to ensure that they get immediate help and cure for their illness without running to mega hospitals to give large amounts of money which they cannot afford, to get treated.”
To pay tribute to the man who worked hard and changed his destiny, Dr Azra says she would name her hospital after her father. That she says would take a little time. Right now, besides taking care of her parents-in-law and husband, she has to look after her 12-year-old son and four-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Rita Farhat Mukand is an independent writer
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Stories / by Rita Farhat Mukund / May 14th, 2024
