“The children who receive free treatment in my hospital today will surely be inclined to ‘pay it forward’ when they grow up.” It is the hope and confidence that drives Dr.Vadamalayan Pugalagiri to treat children with cancer absolutely free of cost. “It is a genuine effort to ring in hope in poor families,” he asserts.
Over the years, he has seen patient’s families pawn personal treasures and beg for healthcare. He has seen people dying of appendix burst because they did not have the money to pay for the surgery.
“Children, whose families cannot afford, need the attention they deserve,” he says. To coincide with the completion of 60 years of the hospital established in 1957 by his father, the legendary general surgeon, Dr.P.Vadamalayan, and in remembrance of its humble beginnings as a surgical nursing home with 35-beds, the management has decided to waive off every cost in the mode of treatment and hospitalisation for at least 60 children with cancers, to begin with. Two children have been registered since the scheme was announced a fortnight ago.
“Viable healthcare is the right of every citizen and providing free healthcare is doable,” says the doctor, recovering from septicaemia following a botched up hernia surgery he underwent in Coimbatore. To add to his woes, he also suffered a cardiac arrest three months ago. “I feel I have been reborn twice,” he says, and adds, “Healing comes when you get outside yourself and help others.”
The story, however, begins when Pugalagiri as a 20-year-old watched his father face cancer and eventually succumb to it. “My father used to go to Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai for treatment under well-known oncologist Dr.V.Shanta and I heard him once explaining to her the difficulty in travelling and suggesting her to start a cancer centre in Madurai,” he recalls. “For over four decades his words kept ringing in my ears,” says Pugalagiri.
Dr.V.Pugalagiri, Chairman and Managing Director and his wife Chandra Pugalagiri, Joint Managing Director of Vadamalayan Hospitals, who runs the show in his absence
His father passed away in 1972 after giving the Temple Town its first most modern 10-bedded clinic. It was built in 1947 on Palace Road followed by the nursing home in Chokkikulam in 1957. By then Dr.Vadamalayan had also ensured that his youngest child Pugalagiri studies medicine despite protests from the young boy. “I wanted to study law but my father insisted otherwise and I joined the Madurai Medical College.”
Not interested in practising medicine, Dr.Pugalagiri, took over the administrative charge of the nursing home in 1985. “My dream was to expand the nursing home into a multi-speciality hospital and prevent the locals and those from Southern TN from travelling far for medical treatment.”
In the last 32 years, not only has the Vadamalayan Hospital seen phenomenal expansion into 260-bed multi-disciplinary quality health provider but also Dr.Pugalagiri is most happy about fulfilling his father’s wish. The three-storeyed Integrated Cancer Research Centre was inaugurated in 2016 March by Dr.Shanta. And Dr.Pugalagiri is determined to make a lasting impact on cancer care, constantly motivated that he is by his father’s words: “The secret to happiness is doing good to others.”
Consciously he has chosen to invest in technology and bring together specialists from all over the country to focus on elevating treatment of cancer. “There are so many players in differing realms, but I decided to get the best and latest equipment that will keep costs down and give patients the best results.”
Whether it is the state-of-the-art LINAC (linear accelerator for treating cancer patients using radiation) bought at Rs.14 crore or the PET scan (positron emission tomography imaging test that uses a special glucose dye with radioactive tracers to check for cancer cells in the body) bought for Rs.12 crore, or even the two-bed unit for iodine therapy for thyroid cancer (the only one in this region) Dr.Pugalagiri with his team is ensuring effective treatment options, easier care delivery and better patients’ experiences. “It is important for cancer patients -- who often see several doctors and some steps get skipped or duplicated, leading to harmful effects -- to have everything under one roof,” he says.
He only wishes there were more companies manufacturing FDG (Fluorodeoxyglucose), the cancer tracer that is injected into a patient before PET Scan. At the moment, the dye is transported from Chennai or Bangalore.
Purpose-driven medicare fosters innovation, collaboration and inspiration and brings focus to projects. “Each project at Vadamalayan has emerged from felt needs of the people and formulated with appropriate objectives,” he says.
It is not just the medical degree but the willingness to embrace change and new technologies that help to provide patients better outcomes. “If you invest in cutting-edge treatments, you make informed, educated decisions and that hugely help patients react positively to those treatments,” assures Dr.Pugalagiri.
QUOTE:
I am like an intermediary managing a big show. But I do not have job satisfaction till I am assured that no patient is deprived of treatment in my hospital due to lack of finances or facilities – Dr.Pugalagiri Vadamalayan, CMD Vadamalayan Hospitals
Setting standards
State-of-the-art cardiothoracic unit spearheads the multi-speciality hospital today.
Vadamalayan clinics, pharmacies and diagnostic centres are across rural areas around Madurai.
Introduced concept of Home Health Care.
First Indian hospital to be awarded ISO rating for Environmental management system
First to set up trauma care centre on NH-7 between Vadipatti and Dindigul
Fully equipped 24 hours responder ambulances
Constructed Vadamalayan Memorial Maternity Block at PHC in Melakkal Village
Established Indo-Japanese Collaborative research institute for stem cell therapy
