The II year medical students of the Tagore Medical College & Hospital were at the MOHAN Foundation office in Chennai on 29th January 2020 for the second part of their Angels of Change training – ‘Meeting the Experts.’ The students were accompanied by Dr. E Suganya Arvinth, and Dr. Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professors at the Department of Community Medicine of the college. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde and Ms. Ishwarya moderated the session.
The session began with a recap of the Day 1 sessions and briefing of Day 2 agenda by Dr. Hemal. The first speaker of the day was Mrs. Usha Balasubramanian, a caregiver and member of the Patient Support Group of MOHAN Foundation. She shared her experience of being a caregiver to her husband who was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure and also her mother-in-law who suffered from the same ailment. She elaborated on the challenges faced at every stage right from diagnosis, choosing doctors and hospitals, medication and diet compliance, work-life balance, getting listed on the transplant waiting list, up until getting prepped for the transplant. She ended her talk explaining how the demise of her husband motivated her to reach out to other patients and their caregivers, offer emotional support and guidance to deal with the situation.
The second speaker Dr. Rajeevalochana Parthasarathy, Consultant Nephrologist from Madras Medical Mission Hospital spoke on CKD in India. She began with a few basic questions on CKD, addressed to the students. Her lecture covered the following tropics:
It was a very engaging and interactive session. Questions related to acute kidney injury and gestational diabetes were raised.
The final speaker for the day was Dr. Kanimozhi R, Senior Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant Govt. Stanley Hospital. Her lecture was on the topic of brain death certification and donor maintenance. The following topics were discussed during her talk:
It was a highly informative session and Dr. Kanimozhi emphasized the importance of the role of grief counselors and organisations like MOHAN Foundation in sustaining the deceased donor programme in the country.
Dr. Suganya and Mr. Adhithyan, a student, shared their feedback about the training and the students also filled out feedback forms. They also shared the initiatives they plan to undertake in future to promote the cause which included social media campaigning, scripting short films and organising awareness events.
MOHAN Foundation is thankful to Tagore Medical College for the opportunity to engage with a brilliant group of students and looks forward to future collaborations.
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