Dr Venkataramanaa Neelam Krishnan, a neurosurgeon par excellence, has shown that success and progress indeed favours the brave and the persistent
Before he became a star neurosurgeon, Dr Venkataramanaa Neelam Krishnan (Dr VNK henceforth) was a shy boy with a modest dream– to become a doctor and make his parents proud. In the course of fulfilling his dream, Dr VNK met neurosurgery and was lost in the labyrinth of the intricacies of the brain. He carries the spark with him till date. Nothing gives him more pleasure than detangling the mysteries of the neuronal network. As the Vice Chairman & Chief Neurosurgeon, BGS Global Hospitals, Bengaluru, Dr VNK gets the opportunity to live his dream everyday.
The early years
Born in 1958 to a government school teacher, N Krishnan and a home-maker, Susheelamma; Dr VNK spent his childhood in rural Andhra Pradesh. “My father was a teacher and had a transferable job so we moved along with him to various small villages in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh,” he reminicises. They finally settled in a town called Karvetinagar, where Dr VNK did most of his schooling. Being the son of a principal is tough, but being the son of a principal and attending the same school is tougher. “My father told me that he did not want to hear any complaints about me from other teachers in the school,” he recalls.
He remembers his father as a disciplinarian, educationist, social activist and humanist. “My father inspired me. He motivated me to excel in everything I did,” says Dr VNK. And truly he never let his father down. Dr VNK was an astute student, excelling in academics and co-curricular activities.
“There was a notice board at school where the names of best students were displayed. It was my father’s wish to see my name there,” Dr NVK remembers. “I was the best outgoing student of my batch,” he adds.
After school Dr VNK attended SRS Junior College which was far from his village. “My village did not have higher education college, so I used to travel 8 km everyday to the nearest college,” he recollects.
Nurturing a dream
Science was his first love and he was always attracted towards medicine. Dr VNK informs that he always wanted to be a doctor. “In those days we were told stories of the successful people in the village and we looked up to them as our role models,” explains Dr VNK. “We had two role models from our village. Professor PV Arunachalam, a renowned mathematician and his brother Dr Chandrasekaran. I was inspired by Dr Chandrasekaran and wanted to be a surgeon like him,” he adds.
After college, Dr VNK applied for a medical seat and was selected to study at Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) located at Tirupati. “I was very happy when I got selected but had not comprehended the severity of the situation,” recalls Dr VNK. “Medicine as a subject was not difficult but the medium of instruction was foreign to me,” he adds. In fact, till then Dr VNK’s education had been in Telugu language. Although familiar with English, the sudden change in the instruction medium threw him off-guard. He found it difficult to keep pace. But the hard-working doctor did not give up. Instead, he taught himself to read and write English and went on to excel in the subject. Later on, it unlocked the fascinating world of medicine for him.
Picking the brain
As life went on, Dr VNK finished his MBBS with a distinction and was looking to do his post-graduation in surgery. However, he was good at his subjects and each of his teachers wanted him to join their own streams. “My medicine professor wanted me to be a generalist whereas my obstetrics and gynaecology teacher wanted me to take up gynaecology, likewise for my other teachers,” says Dr VNK.
However, he had made up his mind to pursue neurosurgery. “Since my anatomy days, the brain had started to attract me and I was sure falling for it. By the end of my graduation, I was as sure as the sun that I wanted to get into neurosurgery,” he says. One of his professors even tried to talk him out of it. “My professor told me don’t take neurosurgery. Pick any other surgical stream but neurosurgery, because brain is one tissue you cannot cut or ligate so you won’t enjoy it,” says Dr VNK.
“As I heard different opinions flying around me, I felt compelled even further to take up neurosurgery. As luck would have it, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru had an opening for neurosurgery residency. I applied and got through to the five-year programme,” he informs.
Stint with NIMHANS
NIMHANS is one-of-its-kind institute in India. It is not only the foremost institute for mental health and neuroscience but it also has a multidisciplinary approach in patient care, training programmes and also in the promotive, preventive and curative aspects of clinical services in mental health and neurosciences.
“I spent a better part of my life at NIMHANS. It was my second home,” says Dr VNK. Looking back at those days, Dr VNK recalls his mentor at NIMHANS, Prof G Narayana Reddy. “Dr Reddy was not only a teacher but a mentor and an inspiration to me. He always encouraged me to explore and do more,” says Dr VNK. At the end of his residency, Dr VNK was invited by Dr Reddy to join the staff at NIMHANS. Dr NVK joined NIMHANS as Assistant Professor in 1986 and enjoyed an academic career till 1991. “I enjoyed my time at NIMHANS. Teaching, learning, research work and academic publishing were all part of my work,” says Dr VNK.
During this time he also went abroad for further training. He did his Micro Neurosurgery Training at Nordstadt krankenhaus, Hanover, Germany and Neuro Endoscopy Training at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. “I was very fortunate to have learned from Professor Madjid Samii the distinguished Iranian neurosurgeon and medical scientist at Hanover. My stint at Germany opened my eyes to new possibilities and avenues of micro-surgery. I got to learn and use the latest gadgets applied in neurosurgery,” says Dr VNK.
Entry into private sector
By 1990s, privatisation had entered India’s healthcare system. State-of-the-art hospitals which were a far cry from the existing government hospitals were matching steps with the speciality hospitals in the West.
Around this time, Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru approached Dr VNK to start a specialised neurosurgery department. He saw this as a unique opportunity as till then a specialised neurosurgery department in a private hospital was unheard of. “We took it up as a challenge and in 1991 the Manipal Institute of Neurological Disorders was born with help of Dr AS Hegde,” says Dr VNK. It was a professionally fulfilling experience for Dr VNK. “I spent 16 years at Manipal and it was quite a satisfying journey for me. We established a credible department, state-of-the-art neuro ICU, PG programmes, research programmes, and all this was very satisfying,” says Dr VNK.
Dial an ambulance
Throughout his career, Dr VNK found head injuries to be a grave issue. He was moved by the number of people dying due to trauma and head injuries. “On one New Year’s eve I had to certify five head injury deaths. I was very moved and disturbed by the deaths because they could have been avoided,” laments Dr VNK.
While he was in Germany, Dr VNK was quite impressed by their organised trauma care system. “Germany at that time had a beautifully organised emergency care system. It was centred around life and the respect for it,” he recalls. “When I compared it with the Indian scenario, I found that people were dying, not only due to lack of treatment but also because of lack of knowledge of pre-hospital care,” he says.
He stared to research the challenges faced by trauma patients and found that people did not know where to go, how to take the trauma patient to the hospital. As a result they arrived at the hospital late and were in very bad shape. Comprehensive Trauma Consortium (CTC) was born out of this concern in 2000. Dr VNK’s brainchild, this NGO was the first attempt in India to consolidate trauma care by bringing the police, fire brigade, hospitals, educational institutions, enterprises and other voluntary organisations on the same platform to save lives.
For the first time, CTC introduced the concept of an emergency central control room and an emergency no – 1062 to be dialled at the time of trauma. He established a dedicated network of ambulances with trained paramedics who were commissioned in and around Bengaluru city to render pre-hospital care to victims in all accident and medical emergencies. With this model the NGO was able to reduce trauma deaths from 22 per cent to three per cent within a year. This model was very successful and a report published in a Telugu magazine led the former chairman of Satyam Computer, Ramalinga Raju to take up the project and name it EMRI. Today, this service is known as Dial 108, GVK EMRI.
New growth avenues
In 2005, Dr VNK teamed up with his old college friend to set-up a quaternary care state-of-the-art hospital, BGS Global Hospital in Bengaluru. “Dr K Ravindranath was my senior at medical school and when he brought this proposal to me I could not refuse,” reveals Dr VNK. The hospital provides preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, palliative and support services under one roof and is one of the best hospital for multi-organ transplant and cancer treatment.
Researching for progress
Dr VNK has been an avid researcher since his NIMHANS days. “One of the areas that I am working on is prevention of programmed cell death. For patients, we not only want to prolong life but we want to provide a better quality of life,” says Dr VNK. Another area he is passionate about is brain cancer. “Glioblastoma is one of the most malignant tumour and the survival is 1.2 to 1.6 years. We are working on genetics and immune-mediated work and stem cells that improve drug delivery system,” informs Dr VNK.
It has been an interesting journey for Dr VNK. “I have enjoyed my journey so far. Everyday is fascinating for me as I continue to learn new things,” he says with a childlike enthusiasm. “For me every surgery is a challenge. We can plan as much as we want but when we open-up the patient we always encounter the wonders of God,” he adds. “No two cases are similar, each case has its own complexities,” he says when asked about any memorable case.
Living life to the fullest
Dr VNK has a musical bent of mind. “Had I not been a surgeon, I would have been a musician. It fascinates me,” he says. He frequently listens to Indian classical and devotional songs.
His day begins with meditation, exercise and some quiet breakfast. His work begins by seeing his in-patients. Then he meets his team to discuss and plan surgeries. He operates on three to four patients a day and in between also finds time to see new patients. Then, he devotes some time to his administrative duties. A few evenings per week is devoted to research work. Dr VNK spends late evenings with the family and reads before going to bed.
His advice to the new generation of surgeons is to take advantage of current technology and knowledge, keep learning new things and focus on research. He believes that Indians have the best minds and if put together they can solve the unmet medical needs and make the healthcare system more effective and simpler.
| At a glance |
 Dr VNK was born in 1958 at Tirupathi. He is married to Dr Shobha Venkat, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and they have a school-going daughter. Dr VNK loves to travel and enjoys holidaying in pristine beautiful locales. He is not fussy about food and enjoys all kinds of vegetarian fare. He is not a movie bluff but once in a while enjoys it. Last movie he saw in a theater was Avatar.
Achievements Establishment of brain tumour bank in India Awards Received Gold medal from Rotary International – Young Surgeons Award |
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