BYL Nair Hospital dean Ravi Rananavare died of a heart attack on Monday. This has put the spotlight back on doctors' stressful lives.
BYL Nair Hospital dean Ravi Rananavare died of a heart attack on Monday. This has put the spotlight back on doctors' stressful lives. Often busy attending to several patients in a 12-hour to 14-hour shift, doctors neglect their own health. They fail to practise what they preach to their patients - to eat right and on time as well as to exercise regularly. Their haywire schedules and stressful lives adversely affect their health and make them more vulnerable to heart attacks.
Dr Rananavare, 56, was found unconscious at his Khar residence on Monday and was rushed to the Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, where he was declared dead before admission.
According to sources from the Nair Hospital, the heart attack was Dr Rananavare's first.
Dr M Shah, deputy dean of Nair Hospital who had known Dr Ranavare for over 15 years, said, "He regularly checked his insulin and cholesterol levels. He had, however, stopped exercising of late and had become a little obese." He reminisced that Dr Rananavare was "a jolly, down-to-earth person who was more like a friend to his juniors than a boss."
Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM Hospital and director of health services, agreed. "Dr Rananavare was a gem of a person. He was a team person and never fought with anyone. We worked together till 11pm on Sunday night. Who would think such a thing would happen?"
Oak added that municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar will choose the acting and permanent deans of the hospital in the next few weeks.
Dr Rananavare had started his career as a lecturer at JJ Hospital in 1985. He was promoted as the head of the radiology department at Nair Hospital in 1995. He became the dean of the hospital in 2008. He is survived by two brothers and two sisters.
Rananavare's death comes a little less than a year after the death of well-known onco-surgeon Dr V Kulkarni from Nanavati Hospital. Dr Kulkarni died of a heart attack in June last year moments before an operation. In May 2003, noted cardiologist Nitu Mandke, 52, died of a cardiac arrest at Hinduja Hospital.
Experts said cardiologists, critical intensivists, onco-surgeons and physicians are more prone to heart diseases due to lack of sleep, a stressful life and untimely food intake. Dr Sudhir Pillai, consultant cardiologist, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, said, “Doctors should follow a fitness regime."
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