BENGALURU : Once known for her melodious voice, which turned hoarse, leading people to address her as ‘sir’ whenever she made a phone call, Dr Prema Dhanraj, who had aspired to become a singer, resolved to turn from a burns survivor to a burns surgeon at the same hospital where she was treated. Despite societal challenges, this 72-year-old specialist turned from a burns victim to a plastic (reconstructive) surgeon after persevering through a gruelling journey. Her determination culminated in a triumph, earning her the civilian honour, the Padma Shri, in this year’s list.
Having grown up in a family with her parents as singers, Dr Prema started learning to sing at a young age.
‘My mom vowed to make me a doc’
A day before a music competition at school, the eight-year-old Prema’s thoughts were only about giving her best at the competition. A few hours before the competition, with both her parents and helper away, she decided to make a cup of coffee before rehearsals. Being the eldest among her four siblings, she was familiar with cooking.
But the pump stove failed to start and when she added kerosene, the stove caught fire, leading to a blast that burned nearly her entire face. The girl, who was not tall, could not reach the water drum in time to douse herself. A neighbour studying on his terrace noticed the fire and rushed to douse it, recalls Dr Prema about how a day before a singing competition changed her life
Dr Prema said, “My lip was attached to my chest, and my neck was obscured. I underwent initial treatment in Bengaluru and then at Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore.”
Three days before and after each surgery, tears of pain used to stream down her face, and her parents, witnessing her pain and blood stains on her dress, could not help but shed tears as well.
“After three unsuccessful surgeries, where doctors struggled to insert a tube due to obstruction in my neck, the fourth surgery worked and at that moment, my fate changed from being a singer to becoming a surgeon. When I was undergoing a 12-hour-long surgery, my mom, in a chapel at the hospital, vowed that if I recovered, she would make me a doctor at the same institute,” Dr Prema recalled.
After she returned home, her cousins, who used to visit frequently, stopped staying over because her facial injuries frightened them. But Dr Prema never realised what was scaring them for almost a year, as her mother took down all the mirrors to shield her from seeing her face. It did not dawn on her until one day, while running around the house, she stumbled upon a mirror while the house helper was cleaning her mother’s room, ‘That day, the truth hit me, and I cried incessantly,” she said.
Throughout the turmoil, the external world was harsh to the young Prema. Though her brother, a year younger than her, always accompanied her, people around them reacted with screams and hurtful names upon seeing her face. The siblings, at 8 and 7 years old, uncertain of how to console each other or hide their tears, only resorted to holding hands and looking away.
While Prema was adjusting to the challenges, her parents decided to reintegrate her into school after a three-year gap which left Prema, who was 11 by then, disheartened. “I had left school in the 5th standard, losing touch with my classmates. I agreed to privately take exams as the government wanted me to resume schooling from the 5th standard due to the three-year gap,” she said.
After studying at a medical college in Hubballi, Dr Prema got a job at CMC where she had been treated and there, she met the director who had performed his first lip surgery on her. Dr Prema then went to Ludhiana for a six-month training programme in plastic surgery, and treated numerous patients with burns, amid the India-Pakistan war. Recalling her days as a patient, Dr Prema said, “Every time I visited a doctor, my mother would say she would like to see me in the doctor’s chair. In 2002, I founded my NGO, Agni Raksha, following an award I received in 1999 from the USA as the only Indian burns surgeon and sat on the chair after serving as an Associate Professor. So far, Agni Raksha NGO has conducted 25,000 free surgeries.”