The apartheid in South Africa ended only a year after Dr Mathew Samuel performed angioplasty on a 93-year-old woman there. The racial divide was so strong in South Africa then that when he went there in 1991 to unplug the woman’s artery, which was blocked with calcium, only one doctor spoke to him.
“Only one doctor in the entire team at the hospital talked to me before I performed the angioplasty. Who is this Indian to teach us? This was their attitude. But after the procedure was over, one by one all the doctors began approaching me with films on the heart conditions of their patients. The next year apartheid got abolished. I felt proud as an Indian since I too could contribute towards this change by changing the mind set of at least a few, said Dr Mathew.
Known as the father of angioplasty in India he started and established the procedure in the country. He was in the city to receive Heart Care Foundation’s award on Sunday. The 67-year-old doctor from Kottayam, who has made vital contributions to developments which have taken place in the field of treating heart diseases, says that educating people about heart diseases will help them to seek appropriate treatment. The number of heart disease cases are on the rise.
“It is a wrong notion that competition among hospitals paves way to unnecessary medication or treatment procedures like angioplasty. People are well aware, especially in states like Kerala, and they can’t be taken for a ride. At present patients are given CDs of procedures like angioplasty to show them why the stent was placed in their heart,” he says.
He is at present the director, Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories, Apollo Hospitals Chennai. “The success rate of heart transplantations is a solace since they help in saving lives. We can also develop systems to prevent death by heart attacks. In Tamil Nadu, the government has tied up with GVK-Emergency Management and Research Institute(EMRI) to provide ambulance network for the entire state so that no time is lost in taking patients to hospitals in emergencies like heart attacks. In Kerala as well the government can think of making similar arrangements,” says the doctor.
“A system is being developed under which people showing symptoms of cardiac arrest are ensured primary treatment at any hospital so that he or she survives the risk hours before being moved to a better institution,” he adds.
Since the 80’s, Dr Mathew Kalarickal has visited many countries mostly underdeveloped ones to train cardiologists there. He has treated many of politicians in Pakistan. “When people need help all prejudice go. If I had limited myself to a particular state or country I would have committed injustice by not sharing my knowledge,” says Dr Mathew Kalarickal.