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Asset Name:
E009238 - Bhadreshwar, Dhirajlal Ramji (1929 - 2016)
Title:
Bhadreshwar, Dhirajlal Ramji (1929 - 2016)
Author:
Nina Bhadreshwar
Identifier:
RCS: E009238
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2016-08-25

2017-02-24
Description:
Obituary for Bhadreshwar, Dhirajlal Ramji (1929 - 2016), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Bhadreshwar, Dhirajlal Ramji
Date of Birth:
23 June 1929
Place of Birth:
Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika
Date of Death:
28 July 2016
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MB BS Bombay 1957

MS 1962

FRCS Edin 1963

FRCS 1964
Details:
Dhirajlal Ramji Bhadreshwar was an orthopaedic surgeon in Barnsley who, after his retirement from the NHS, worked in Bangladesh, Nepal and Inner Mongolia, treating patients with leprosy. He was born in Dar es Salaam, in what was then Tanganyika in East Africa on 23 June 1929. His family home was, however, in rural Saurashtra, Gujarat, India, and he attended a primary and middle school there. His father, Ramji, was a tailor and his mother, Keshar, a housewife. He was the third child, born after an elder brother (Parmanand) and a sister, and he later had a younger brother. As a low caste Hindu, he was expected to follow in the family's footsteps as a tradesman, as his elder brother had. His father died while he was barely eight years old. The village in Saurashtra was very poor and, while there, he was stung by a scorpion while sweeping the floor. The only medic around was the local traditional healer, who poured boiling wax on the sting to remove it. Somehow this inspired Bhadreshwar to become a doctor! Before he was 14, he was put on a dhow boat and crossed the Indian Ocean to join his older brother who had a tailoring business in Dar es Salaam. While there, he studied hard and passed the senior Cambridge exam in 1949 and also the London matriculation exam in 1950. After this, he went back to India, where he studied at St Xavier's College, Bombay, gaining his intermediate science examination with first class honours. He went on to study at the Seth GS Medical College, Bombay University, gaining his MB BS in 1957 and his MS in 1961. He was the first East African to gain a masters' degree in surgery. He was a house surgeon at the TB Hospital, Bombay and was then a house surgeon at the KEM Hospital. From there, he progressed to orthopaedic house surgeon, orthopaedic registrar and surgical registrar at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Bombay between September 1958 and October 1962. He also taught medical and postgraduate students. However, despite his work ethic and ability, he could not further his career due to his low caste status and his inability to pay a bribe, which at that time was necessary to get a senior house registrar or consultant position. Also, following the independence of African nations from Britain in the 1960s, many East African Gujaratis had to choose between citizenship of an African country or gaining a British passport. Bhadreshwar decided to take the boat to England, arriving in January 1963. He slept on the sofa of Indian friends who lived in the suburbs of London. He had some money saved, but this quickly dwindled. He subsisted on Brussels sprouts and salad cream as vegetarians were not, as yet, common. A further shock was discovering his exemplary medical qualifications, teaching and surgical experience were not valid credentials and he would have to pass the FRCS in order to become an orthopaedic surgeon in the UK. He was told the time for enrolment was well past and he would have to wait until next year; he did not have that long. Gathering his wits and determination, he took lodgings in a ramshackle bedsit in Kilburn and attended every lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons. He lived at the library, ate at the cheapest curry house in Holborn and passed his primary exams in June 1963. Three months before, after a serendipitous meeting with an orthopaedic consultant, Tom Durness, Bhadreshwar gained an appointment as a senior house officer at the Ipswich Hospital and was later promoted to registrar. In 1963 he passed the final examination for the FRCS (Edinburgh) and in June 1964 finally achieved his FRCS. He became a senior surgical registrar in orthopaedics in October 1964 and remained in this position until February 1966. During this time, he built strong ties within the hospital community. He lived on-site and became close to a young theatre nurse, Kathleen Read, who was an enthusiastic Christian. Bhadreshwar, raised a Hindu but with strong reservations about this religion, attended Kathleen's Bible studies and chapel and was often included in invitations back to Kathleen's family home. However, when he said he wanted to marry her, she replied tearfully that she could only marry a Christian and that she wished to serve as a missionary. Around the same time, Bhadreshwar received news his mother was dying back in India. He boarded a boat back and, in March 1966, started work at the KEM Hospital as an assistant professor, training young surgeons. During this time, he wrote many letters to Kathleen and did a lot of soul-searching. His declaration to his family of his renunciation of Hinduism and his plans to settle in England were not well received and his passport was taken from him. Nevertheless, his elder brother supported him and he managed to get back to England. Somewhere on the boat, either coming or going, he had become a Christian and was baptised when he returned to Ipswich. He was warmly received and held various locum positions until October 1967, when he became a senior registrar in orthopaedics at Northampton General Hospital. Here he set up hand surgery clinics and taught medical students. At this point, he found his new obstacle wasn't cultural, it was his race: with a name like Bhadreshwar, he wasn't even getting interviews. Having married Kathleen and now with two children, he was desperate for a settled post as an orthopaedic consultant. Outstanding references were meaningless with his name. Finally, he was appointed as an orthopaedic consultant surgeon in Barnsley in November 1971. Barnsley was a mining town with a vernacular impenetrable even to most regular Yorkshiremen and with inhabitants with a tough temperament, living life between the pub and t'pit. With a high rate of traumas, knee, back and hip injuries, Bhadreshwar was in his element and was soon widely appreciated and honored. From a small department with two consultants, he expanded and transformed it into a centre of orthopaedic excellence over 22 years, a credit to both the hospital and the community. He would implement the newest techniques to develop more efficient, successful joint replacements, and went on courses in Berne, Switzerland and around the UK to ensure the working class community had the most up-to-date care. He was recognised both regionally and nationally for pushing forward orthopaedic procedures, particularly with knee and hip surgery and replacements. If there was an accident down the pit or out on the fields, Bhadreshwar would don a hard hat and be on his hands and knees, often in the dark or mud, doing everything he could to save limbs and lives. He was well-respected across all departments and his work ethic was relentless; he was often out on home visits several nights a week to care for patients unable to get to hospital. He was also president of the Back Pain Association for the Barnsley area and taught in Nottingham and Trent. In the summer of 1990, he went to Hong Kong on a lecturing trip, where he met Lu Long, a young Chinese surgeon from Inner Mongolia desperate to learn up-to-date orthopaedic procedures. Bhadreshwar sponsored Lu Long from the UK, later bringing him over and helping to arrange residencies and opportunities for study in the Sheffield and Nottingham orthopaedic departments. Lu Long went on to become head of internal medicine for Inner Mongolia and taught many more orthopaedic surgeons the skills Bhadreshwar had taught him. Bhadreshwar also trained surgeons from Romania in the same way. In November 1992, he suffered a massive heart attack after returning home from theatre at 1 am. He semi-retired and took on locum posts at Dewsbury Hospital, but the encroaching changes in administration and use of computers made him realise this was no longer a world in which he could work. Despite his frail health, he still hungered for his and Kathleen's dream - to do medical missionary work in the poorest areas of the world. Despite his age, he studied the transformative surgery techniques of surgeons who helped those disfigured or disabled by leprosy. Somehow, he convinced the Leprosy Mission to take him on. Following several months of studying and training in India, he took up residence in Nilphamari in Bangladesh in early 1995. He was the first to erect a make-shift trauma centre following the typhoon in 1998 and saved many lives during his stay there. He later joined the Nepal Leprosy Trust and their hospital in Lalgadh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. In late 1998 he relocated there and worked with the teams to establish an infrastructure for thorough care of the most destitute victims of poverty and leprosy. Building on his decades of expertise as an orthopaedic consultant, particularly in reconstructive work, he adapted the techniques of the pioneering surgeon Paul Brand. He discovered how to reroute nerves to muscles and to graft tendons, so that disfigured and permanently paralysed victims could return to social acceptance and the dignity of work. He also worked hard to build relationships with and teach those indigenous workers who wanted careers serving their community through nursing and surgery. In 1999 Bhadreshwar went to Inner Mongolia to help Lu Long set up an outstanding orthopaedic team. He refused all payment and gifts. He was given the highest award by the Inner Mongolian Government in 2000 and was an honorary professor and orthopaedic consultant there. Following a stroke, he returned to England to live near his daughter, Sarita, and her family in Telford, Shropshire. Despite his failing health, Bhadreshwar continued to be a very active member of his local church and the Gideons, and also ran a trust fund, which helped establish schools and nutrition for the poorest children around Lalgadh, and the medical training of nurses and doctors in Bangladesh, Nepal, China and Peru. He was immensely generous to those involved in serving the poor in mission fields or those studying to practise surgery in their own communities. Enabling them to gain the proper credentials and training was paramount to him. Bhadreshwar had been a keen photographer throughout his life and was a watercolour artist from 1992. He could speak 11 languages. He was a beloved granddad, and enjoyed gardening and growing his own vegetables. He was known to be a practical joker and had a sharp sense of humour. Saucepan lids and broken TV legs were often mended with bone cement. He was erudite, yet enjoyed the company of plain-speaking people. Above all, he was motivated by his strong faith; he believed that God had blessed him by allowing him to pursue his dream of surgery and being a doctor, and he felt it was a pleasure to give something back. After his wife's death from cancer in 1985, Bhadreshwar brought up their three children, Nina, Sarita and David, who were then teenagers, alone. Dhirajlal Ramji Bhadreshwar died on 28 July 2016, aged 87.
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England

Image Copyright (c) Image provided for use with kind permission of the family
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
Media Type:
JPEG Image
File Size:
155.30 KB