The news of the home call of Dr K.C.Mammen came to me, while I was travelling during this week, in the north eastern area. Since I last spoke to him, I knew that he was declining in health.
However, when one receives the news of the home call of person, who left deep impressions about a way of living with a sense of vocation in the practice of medicine, one feels little lost. It is with this sense of loss I attempt to recall my association with him from my medical school days.
The first time I met him at the MOSC medical mission hospital was in 1970, when I cam home for holidays in my third year of medical studies. As my father needed medical attention, I accompanied him to the MOSC medical mission hospital, at Kolenchery. It was then I heard that Dr Mammen, a former professor of Child Health at CMC Medical College, Vellore was its Medical director.
I came on another day to meet him in the afternoon. I waited outside his office as he was engaged in a meeting. After the meeting he came out to greet me and welcomed me to his office room. To meet a gentle spoken, smiling person with thoughtful manners was surprising as it was my first meeting and I was only a medical student. His one concern was that I do well in undergraduate studies and specialise in an area of my interest. He did share his experience as a paediatrician and the opportunities in this field.
It was during that meeting, I realised why the MOSC medical mission planned to have a hospital at Kolenchery. It was a rural area and the nearest place for any form of secondary care medical support was about twenty kilometres away. He felt the need of a hospital with in-patient care. He discontinued his position at CMC Vellore, to be the medical director of the initiative, which was in its early stage. He brought another six doctors from CMC, hoping that they together can develop the hospital, which was what had happened. The initial hundred bed hospital grew to be a five hundred bed hospital by the time he left his term of voluntary service after 18 years. Now it is a medical college of high calibre with some distinctive features.
It was my habit to visit him when I came for my holidays. My parents needed medical attention, and every time I visited the hospital I dropped in to meet him if he was free. During those contacts, I heard his biographical glimpses of being a medical student and his time overseas training in Paediatrics. What stood out was his caring and thoughtful ways in his approach to people and children he looked after. He lived an austere life and made it his habit to be mindful of those who needed help to move on in their lives.
After I got into the discipline of Developmental Neurology and child development, I have had opportunities to meet him. His interest in what Anna and I were pursuing through ASHIRVAD at Chennai to help developmentally challenged children and their parents was spontaneous, that he became a friend of ASHIRVAD. When we moved to CMC Vellore in 1997 on the invitation of CMC to start the first Developmental Paediatrics Unit in any medical college in India, he got in touch with us to encourage us.
Dr Mammen attended the first conference we organised for Paediatricians in 2000 and participated actively in its deliberations. One comment that he made publicly, at that time was, that 'He longed to see the specialty of Developmental Paediatrics spread widely in the medical colleges in India'. Since then he got even more enthused with the other initiatives of ASHIRVAD. During the telephone conversations during those years, I realised how closely he followed the developments in the specialty. When we got the post doctoral fellowship and PhD in Developmental Paediatrics started in 2004, Dr Mammen was one of those who kept cheering us to go on.
When I retired from CMC in 2008, he invited me to join MOSC medical college to start a faculty of Developmental Paediatrics. Although I went to PIMS, at Pondichery to start a developmental Paediatrics unit then, Anna and I joined MOSC medical college in 2012 from where we retired in 2023. Dr Mammen kept in touch with us during our time at MOSC and encouraged us to be active in supporting medical students and develop the Developmental Paediatric facility to be a regional institute in child development. Although that did not happen, I feel grateful for his personal interest in seeing ASHIRVAD reach out to new opportunities to sponsor child development activities.
Dr K.C.Mammen lived his life showing how a doctor can live his life with a sense of missionary vocation. The last time I met him he talked about his declining memory and physical limitations. The telephone calls with him in the recent years brought encouragement as he still remembered the early beginnings of ASHIRVAD.
Dr Mammen, although hailing from a family of great heritage, he clothed himself with humility, godly living and altruistic calling. He lived to serve, thinking of others. He distributed his wealth among those who needed a crutch to stand on.
When he left CMC Vellore to be associated with the MOSC medical mission, one wondered if he was leaving a career path of outstanding prospects in Paediatrics. He belonged to the tribe of pilgrims, who followed the words of Jesus of Nazareth, to loose in order to bring gain to others.
Dr Mammen leaves a legacy of compassion, self giving and noble service.
Anna and I share in the grief and loss of the family as they bid farewell to Dr Mammen. His life was a demonstration of 'not to be ministered unto but to minister'! He lived to bring wellness to others. He leaves a trail of abundant goodness. Therefore his memory brings an overwhelming sense of gratitude and celebration.
Anna and I feel moved and shall stay grateful for the kindness and thoughtfulness we received from Dr Mammen!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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