What do they do?
Think about the brain. It is the seat of learning, the sanctum sanctorum of wisdom. It is that one critical organ which ensures man’s superiority over other creatures. Our memories, our thoughts, our survival, all our innovations, experimentations and explorations that have taken us from the deepest levels of the blue oceans to the farthest blurred limits of outer space, are controlled and regulated by the brain.
And it takes a highly specialised man or woman to tinker with this super delicate and superpowerful organ – no bagatelle definitely.
“A neurosurgeon, who is often thought of as being next to God, faces the challenge of getting it right every time, hence the stress,” explains Dr Rajendra Prasad, FRCS (neurosurgery), senior consultant neurosurgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.
Dr Prasad was attracted to the profession because of the aura of exclusivity, “and a certain romance surrounding neurosurgeons”, little realising that it would take him “on the road of hard work, long hours, extreme discipline and a lot of personal sacrifice”.
A romantic at heart who was “predestined” to follow in his father’s (the first neurosurgeon of Bihar) footsteps, Dr Prasad was “heavily into stage acting at one time.” His mother ensured he picked up the scalpel. After graduation from Ranchi University, Dr Prasad went to the UK to specialise in neurosurgery after obtaining the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. “I trained and worked at the University Hospitals of London, Nottingham and Bristol over a 10-year period, returning to India in 1996 when the state -of- the-art Apollo Hospital, New Delhi was set up by Dr Prathap C Reddy. I am now proud to be part of this hospital, which has one of the best neurosciences centre in the country,” he adds.
Be prepared for a long, arduous haul before you get to don your scrubs. You’ll have to first pass MBBS and then do MS general surgery through an entrance examination. Says Dr Alok Gupta, senior neurosurgeon and unit head, VIMHANS, New Delhi, “There are just 25-30 neurosurgery seats and candidates appearing would not be less than 40,000 to 50,000. The course itself is very difficult. It is a 24-hour-seven-day job for three years. Throughout this period you have to be on your toes and hardly get any time to sleep. I remember at PGI Chandigarh we used to sleep after three days for one night.”
Medical science, says Dr Gupta, who was chief neurosurgeon at Escorts hospital Faridabad before joining VIMHANS, has made amazing progress since the 19th century, when it was said that bed rest was better than neurosurgery. Now, doctors are aiming for zero mortality in surgery. All brain tumours, spinal tumours and cervical disc problems, brain haemorrhage, head injuries etc, are treated by neurosurgery.
When he was young, says Dr Gupta, a tutor’s younger brother suffering from Parkinson’s disease was reportedly cured after surgery in a London hospital. “That was fascinating and I started and revived the same surgery for Parkinson’s disease in India,” adds the man who did his MBBS and MS in general neurosurgery from GR Medical College Gwalior and later on an M Ch in neurosurgery from G.B. Pant Hospital in New Delhi. He has also done extensive training in stereotactic (requiring minimally invasive interventions) neurosurgery in A.M.C Netherlands, Karolinska Hospital Stockholm and the Singapore General Hospital. At VIMHANS, he says, “we are doing surgery for Parkinson’s disease and gamma knife surgery for selected tumour by high beam of radiation. Epilepsy surgery and surgery for psychiatric patients is also going to start shortly.”
There is need for more neurosurgeons in the country. “At present there are only 2,000 in the country. Many districts don’t have a single neurosurgeon. The number should increase. The problem is that we do not have the required number of teaching institutes,” says Dr Gupta.
There is urgent need in this country for skilled practitioners to work on minimally invasive neurosurgery, stereotactic neurosurgery, surgery for behavioral disorder, stem cell surgery for disabling illnesses like Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis spinal trauma stroke, etc, he adds,
Doctors Prasad and Gupta and Dr Rana Patir of Max Healthcare admit their work is very stressful. Despite the tensions, however, there are equally great moments daily, says Dr Prasad. “I see miracles happen when a paralysed patient is able to walk again. Like all surgeons I thank God for these ‘gifted hands’.”
Through the course of his career he has also developed an interesting philosophy on the existence of a greater force. “The deeper I got into the study of the human brain,” says Dr Prasad, “my conviction grew that there was a God. The perfection with which the brain and spinal cord was created strengthened my belief in the Divine Creator.”
