Images and events in Belgaum, Karnataka on October 15, 2004 keeps coming back to Dr. L. Narendranath, as he sits in his chambers in Hyderabad-based Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) on Tuesday and reflects the day’s significance. That day marked President Kalam’s birthday and it was also the day when his dream to deliver affordable lightweight callipers to the polio-stricken actually became a reality.
The light weight callipers and the Kalam-Raju stent, perhaps country’s first fully indigenised and affordable stent for heart patients, were the two innovations dear to Dr.Kalam.
“We spent long hours at NIMS on how to innovate and bring together the vast experience of our defence scientists and physicians. We were successful because his vision to provide affordable medical care was very clear,” recalls Dr. B. Soma Raju, founder of Care Group of Hospitals, who collaborated with the late President to develop the ‘Kalam-Raju stent’. On that day in Belgaum, when Dr. Kalam was distributing the callipers among polio patients, Dr. Narendranath was a relieved man. Dr. Kalam was so happy and relieved he brought loads of sweet boxes to distribute among polio patients, their relatives and technicians who had developed the lightweight callipers. Lightweight callipers was made up of glass filled polypropylene which weighed just 300 grams while in those days the polio patients used to wear callipers that weighed around four kg. “Our lightweight callipers was lighter, sturdier, easier to make and cheaper. The cost of traditional leather and metal polio callipers at that time was between Rs. 3,500 and Rs. 4,000 but ours was just Rs. 500,” recalls Venkatesh and Ramulu, who still manufacture the callipers in a small workshop at NIMS.
