Dr Ramesh Chandra Mishra, a brilliant orthopaedic postgraduate from the VSS Medical College, Burla, ran past me in the staircase of the Orthopaedic & Accident Department at the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, accompanied by late Dr RS Jena and dashed into late Prof PT Rao’s chamber.
This was in the late 1980s. I was a new Assistant Surgeon at the SCB. Prof Rao, Dr Jena and Dr Mishra came out into the corridor with a patient, whose shoulder was the issue. Each of them had a different diagnosis. Prof Rao asked me to examine the patient in 30 seconds. To me, it was a supra spinatus tendinitis, and Dr Mishra had the same diagnosis. Dr Jena had a diagnosis of ruptured rotator cuff while Prof Rao thought it as a cervical disc. Prof Rao asked Ramesh and me what are the chief actions of supra spinatus tendon. We both said it is the stabiliser/depressor of head of humerus while the deltoid abducts.
Gradually, Ramesh and I became very close to each other. Sociable, caring and accommodating, Ramesh was popular not only among his colleagues, but also with the orthopaedic industry country wide. As a surgeon, he was truly par excellence. This was despite being in a corporate hospital, which is cut off from the so-called mainland of orthopaedic surgery in Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. He took risks and performed surgery with great precision. He was always ahead in the technology, whether he was fixing a difficult fracture or replacing a joint. He established an empire, which catered to a large community of patients in and around his workplace Angul.
Ramesh left us very untimely, that too in a tragic accident. He has left a vacuum in all of us. He is missed in most meetings of State and national levels, which he had seldom failed to attend. His smiling face, which was contagious and expressive, always spoke of the charm which he carried wherever he went. His loss is a very personal one to me.
(Dr CP Das, who works at the West End Hospital, CDA, Sec-6, Cuttack, remembers Dr RC Mishra on his first death anniversary)