Healer’s Touch: A Doctor Guards the Nation’s Heroes on Battlefield

SECUNDERABAD: An artist, flutist, artiste and cardiologist. Colonel K Sitaram who served in the Indian Army for 28 years, is a man of many talents. His stint in the army led to him witnessing what a war could do a country and its citizens. And he himself was in the thick of it. “That was memorable,” Col Sitaram said while discussing those turbulent times at his home at Gunrock Enclave in Secunderabad.

It has been 20 years since he took retirement from the Army at the age of 50 but the fact that he is as fit as a fiddle, lapping up everything that comes his way in life, speaks for his positive bent of mind. The cardiologist works for a corporate hospital, but it is not all work. He plays the flute – he’s got a collection of 20 of them, plays the guitar, sings, and also acts in short films. All this at the age of 70.

After he got an MBBS degree, he was clear about what he wanted to do next. It came to his notice that the army was recruiting doctors and he went through the examinations, emerged successful and joined the Army Medical Corps. This was just a year before the Bangladesh liberation war. Before the war and during the war, the doctor worked at the border with the medical team to provide medical care to soldiers. “It was not just about treating the wounded but also preventing the outbreak of any diseases,” he recalled.
Trained in the use of weaponry, it was almost always necessary to carry his stethoscope around his neck, and a firearm in another. Being an army doctor also meant that he open fire if necessary, to defend the troops, if the situation came to that.

At Comilla, near the Bangladesh border, the Indian troops were involved in the Bangladesh war for liberation from Pakistan. “We would get truck loads of casualties. Every injured person was attended to and every critically injured given that extra care,” he recollected. “The interesting thing was that not just Indian soldiers, we even got to take care of Bangladeshi rebels fighting for liberation and also the Pakistan Army soldiers who were injured. For us, they were patients first who needed medical care and to be nursed back to health,” the doctor recalled. The posting at Comilla meant living in tents and in inhospitable surroundings. “When in service of the country, one does not complain. As doctors, it is a bigger responsibility to take care of our soldiers,” he said.

At other times, the band platoons would play music but during the war, they would serve as stretcher boys carrying army men who needed treatment at the hospital camp.

When going through tough times, there was not a single day when he was overtaken by fear or was scared of anything. “Even the Indian army soldier and officers we treated always remained brave. Even if someone’s leg had to be amputated, the soldier or officer would only inquire about the well-being of his unit. No one was selfish,” he recollected.
While in the army, the doctor pursued his further studies to become a cardiologist. “I loved the subject because that is completely about saving lives,” he said.
The posting in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) meant taking care of casualties in an environment that was extremely hostile.
There is one thing that the cardiologist suggests to everyone. “Keep yourself fit by engaging in physical exercise,” he said. And then there is another suggestion: “If only everyone in the country gets to serve a short term in the army, they would be better equipped in every way to work in any profession of their choice later.”

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: ToI