Meet the Padma Shri awardee doctor who treats cancer patients for free

Dr Ravi Kannan. Picture/ANI-Twitter

New Delhi: Dr Ravi Kannan, a surgical oncologist, was conferred upon the Padma Shri this Republic Day for treating 7000 of his patients, with taking a single penny from them. The doctor, hailing from Chennai, quit his practice there and moved to Assam with his family in 2007 to provide basic healthcare facilities for the people of Barak Valley with his Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Silchar.

Dr Kannan is one of the 118 recipients of the country's highest civilian honour this year. In a video paying tribute to winners, union minister Piyush Goyal hailed the winners as ‘unsung heroes'. Fondly known as Silchar's savior, Dr Kannan is known for transformed healthcare in the Barak family in the past 13 years, where the people had to earlier travel 300km to visit a hospital.

The hospital that caters to people of all socio-economic backgrounds also provides accommodation, food, and employment, apart from free cancer treatment. According to The Times of India, The hospital decided to offer basic jobs, to name a few, to patients and their attenders after an in-house study conducted in 2011 to find that out of the total people seeking cancer treatment, only 28 percent would complete it. The remaining never returned after being diagnosed. He was quoting saying in the report, "People were dying in pain and agony. If they have to come for treatment, they need to be accompanied by a family member, who will have to lose their wages or the family will starve." Thus they started training them in unskilled labour such as clean wards, watering plants, plumbing, and carpentry.

Most of the people in Silchar lived in poverty. When it came to providing free food in the hospital, Dr Kannan got the idea with he saw a child eating puffed rice soaked in water with chillies. He then spoke to the hospital management and open a kitchen that provides free food for the patients.

On receiving the honour, Dr Kannan told ANI, "I shifted to Assam from Chennai (Tamil Nadu) in 2007. It is all due to the teamwork of 350 individuals who work at the hospital. I think, if the progress made in Science does not reach the common man, then it is a failure of the system," Dr Kannan said."

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