Keeping it in the family

Mohan Kameswaran, founder-director, Madras ENT Research Foundation, was recently conferred the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award —Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

It’s not often that three members of the same family win a prestigious national award. But this year, completing a circle that began over two decades ago, Mohan Kameswaran, founder-director, Madras ENT Research Foundation, has won the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award, an honour given by the Medical Council of India in recognition of the ‘best talent in encouraging the development of specialities in different branches of medicine.’

It started in 1981, with Prof. Mohan’s father, S. Kameswaran, winning the award. The latter was a former director of the Institute of Otolaryngology at Madras Medical College. Two years later, his mother, the late Lalitha Kameswaran won the award. Prof. Lalitha was the first woman dean of Madras Medical College, the first women director of medical education and the first vice-chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University.

Over the course of 20 years, after his return from the U.K., Prof. Mohan has focused on cochlear implant surgery for hearing impaired children and the setting up of a programme for this across the country. He has mentored over 40 centres, with 12 in the State. Implantation otology is now a separate sub-discipline in ENT with a fellowship at the Dr. MGR Medical University.

“Tamil Nadu has the highest incidence of deafness in the world at 0.6 per cent primarily due to the many consanguineous marriages,” he says. The programme also has rehabilitation – teaching children to listen and pick up language after surgery.

Over 2,000 children have been given implants under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, and the institute does a large percentage of its procedures free, through charitable trusts, he says, crediting his mother for giving him the desire to serve.

The award, he says, is the recognition of work by a whole team – paediatricians, otologists, speech therapists, psychologists and many others who work in this field.

Prevention is an uphill battle – consanguinity is very entrenched in the culture – but now, he says, the parents of children born with hearing impairments are at the forefront of the awareness drive.

What gives him the greatest joy? Watching ‘his’ children grow up. “Four of them are in Ivy League schools in the US. Some have studied in Anna University, in IITs. Just recently, one of them came by and introduced his fiancé to me. It’s endlessly gratifying,” he says.