In death as well as in life, leading dermatologist and cosmetologist G.R. Ratnavel served people.
Dr. Ratnavel, who established the first cadaver skin bank at the Stanley Medical College, was declared brain-dead on Sunday in Tiruchi. He was 50. His traumatised family has given the go- ahead for organ retrieval and fittingly, his skin will also go to a skin bank. Perhaps to the one he started. The process has already been initiated.
Dr. Ratnavel, who headed the Department of Cosmetology at the Stanley Medical College, was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals in Tiruchi after he collapsed during a visit to the Rockfort temple here a couple of days ago. He was in Tiruchi to attend a conference of dermatologists.
His father-in-law Maha Krishnan, a senior dermatologist, who was also in Tiruchi to attend the conference, said the family had consented to donate Dr. Ratnavel’s organs.
Dr. Ratnavel collapsed while worshipping at the Uchi Pillaiyar shrine Friday morning. He was carried by a few people down and taken in an autorickshaw to a nearby private hospital initially and then to the Apollo Hospitals in Tiruchi. Hospital sources said he was brought in an unconscious state and had suffered massive intracranial haemorrhage.
The lungs will be sent to Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai, while the other organs would be sent to a few private hospitals in Tiruchi, sources said.
The post-mortem is expected to be done at the Government Hospital in Tiruchi on Monday before the body is handed over to his family, sources added. The funeral will take place in Chennai, said family members.
Dr. Ratnavel has trained many cosmetic surgeons, said Tiruchi-based senior dermatologist N. Balasubramanian.
Doctors at the Government Stanley Medical College, where Dr. Ratnavel served for over a decade, were shocked at the brain death of their colleague.
“It was Dr. Ratnavel who developed the cosmetology department — there is no such department in any government hospital here,” said dean of the hospital Ponnambalam Namasivayam.
The department, inaugurated in September 2013, has treated hundreds of patients for a variety of conditions and disorders, including vitiligo and pigmentary conditions, and also performs hair transplants, acne scar revision and other procedures.
The cadaver skin bank at the hospital is the first of its kind set up in the government health system in the State. The skin bank, inaugurated at the end of August this year, stores harvested donor skin that can then be used on burn victims as a temporary skin.
“We have lost a very good colleague,” said V. Anandan, head of the dermatology department, who was with Dr. Ratnavel at the conference in Tiruchi.
