I wonder how people can be grateful after a doc pulls out half her teeth!! Well, a dentist is the expert at that and Becky must be one of the best!! Dr. Juliet’s mom had to have all her teeth pulled out in 3 sittings and today was her first section. To make a long story short it was expected to be difficult but Becky with her talent and patience did an awesome job. So why am I bragging…?It happened when we dropped into Juliets OPD on the way back. Her mom was resting there after the dental extraction and beamed brightly when we walked in. After a little chit-chat she turned to me and said, pointing at Becky, “Gods…

Have you ever looked at your name and regretted that you were called by that name? Probably no!Let me introduce you to a person who feels that way and also a phenomenon you hoped never existed. She is Pothumponnu and her frail, preterm baby is right now in our nursery getting stronger everyday. So what does her name mean? Pothumponnu, in tamil, means “Enough girl”. She was called that because she was the third girl born to her mother and the family regretted it as they wanted a boy and they felt naming her that would put an end to their chances of getting another girl child. She has lived 20 years with that name – 20 years of waking…

Most baby clothes have sweet, cute things written on them like “Angel”, “cute baby”, etc etc. Today was a little different experience in OPD for me. There was this cute baby wearing a cute T-shirt and I couldnt help noticing the message it blared out: “The Nature is beautiful. We protect it!” Now that is a tender age to pass on such a relevant message! But its never too early to start. You can see the full picture by clicking on the thumbnail…. wonder when you or I wore a T-shirt with a social/eco-friendly message! Is it that we feel its not relevant or the fear that people may laugh at us? Do leave your comments!

My entry on August 22nd shows a heart-stopping story about a baby who choked on a small box in his throat. So what happened to him? We’d discharged him a few days ago and today he came into OPD all bouncy and giggly!! I couldnt resist taking a short video clip of him. Amazingly he is back to normal with a cute, wide-toothed smile and you can see him give some naughty winks towards the end of the video clip! Another miracle child!I thank God that this child survived well. In my profession many times the ending isnt so happy – but stories like this really encourage us to go all the way and never give up.Click here to see…

This kid came to OPD today with a history of cough and breathing difficulty for a couple of weeks. He wasnt responding to treatment being given somewhere else. I examined him and found hardly any air entry on his left lung. I took an Xray and that is what you see here! The left lung was overinflated as there seemed to be something half blocking it – air was getting in and not getting out! I had to send him off to Vellore after speaking to Dr. Jacob and Sophie. I called up afterwards and found that they did a bronchoscopy and removed a stone lodged in his left bronchus! Eeks!! Wonder how it got there!! Anyway, I was very…

It happened suddenly – a call from the ER staff at 10.30 PM saying there was a sick child in the ER. Within seconds I was there and the story unfolded. A 1 year old was happy and giggly and had started playing with a small box about 3 cm wide. And suddenly in a flash he thrust it inside his mouth. He was bought choking and hardly breathing with the father desperately having his finger in the mouth to prevent it going into his throat. I quickyly made an attempt, did the thrusts and back blow, used a laryngoscope to intubate and secure the airway. In the meantime the surgeon and anaesthetist had rushed in and the box was…

Life is certainly unpredictable. Last night we had a child who fell into a large bucket of water and almost drowned in it! She came in hardly breathing and with seizures. We did what was necessary. She was ventilated for 12 hours and after 24 hours there she was – so cute. She went back home after 2 days fully normal. You can watch a short clip on youtubeNever ever leave your child in places where accidents can happen. And remember – this life is uncertain. Are you prepared to face death? This girl was lucky enough to survive the accident…. thats her second chance at living.

As a responsible paediatrician, I strongly discourage parents from bottle-feeding their children. The single most important reason for this is the issue of hygiene/cleanliness. Bottles cant be safely sterilised and lots of dirt and bacteria accumulate on the rubber tip however hard you try. This translates into a higher risk of diarrhea in the children, hospital admissions and rarely severe risk to life. Every month we admit dozens of bottle fed infants with diarrhea and dozens more are treated as outpatients. Patient education works, but some people are just arrogant, stupid or think they will escape. This patient takes the cake though – a very innovative method to bottle-feed their baby. See the pic for details!!I’ve never seen THAT before…

This morning when I went to receive the baby after a C-section, as is not unexpected the baby shot out a great stream of urine straight at me. The nurse who saw it said, “Doctor, if a newborn baby pees on you it means that you are getting married soon!” How true – I’m getting married in less than 2 months!! But is it true??! You see – the babys stream was good but his aim was bad – so he actually missed me by an inch! I hope that has no significance!!!!

We’d been planning to fumigate the Nursery for the last 1 week. This is where we physically seal the room and then use formaldehyde to sterilise it. This is done for about 48 hours and at the end of it everything inside including the room, the cradles, the phototherapy unit, the equipment, the walls are all sterile and bacterial contamination is eliminated. I decided to do it this week as we still have only 1 baby in the nursery (not counting a couple of other temporary babies just passing through for phototherapy or observation). The nurses worked hard to clean it first with soap and water and soon the doors and windows were sealed totally with duct tape to make…