Tuesday March 7 2006 00:00 IST
CHENNAI: Dr T J Cherian, hailed as one of the doyens of Cardio-thoracic surgery, who was practising general medicine at Kaliappa Hospital at Abiramapuram in Chennai, committed suicide on Monday by jumping off the terrace of his Abiramapuram residence.

A lifelong bachelor, Cherian (86), a native of Kottarakkara in Kerala and also a Padma Bhushan awardee, resorted to the extreme step at Dev Apartments on Sundararajan Street in Abiramapuram around 10.30 am, where he shared a flat with his sister, Rachel (75) and brother Mathew (80).

Police said that he had taken the lift to the terrace of the building, scaled the small parapet wall and jumped down, and landed on a Maruti 800 car parked in the parking lot, in the process smashing the rear end of the car and breaking its windshield, before his body bounced off against a wall. With the fall breaking his skull, he died instantaneously, police said.

According to circles close to him, Cherian’s health had reportedly been deteriorating for the past one year and he had been experiencing periodic spells of depression. The reason for the suicide remains unknown, police said.

Though the police claimed it was a case of suicide, another version had it that Cherian had gone to the terrace by mistake, had a dizzy spell and toppled over the parapet wall.

Cherian’s body was rushed to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem. Around 3 pm, a funeral was held at the St George’s Cathedral on Cathedral Road, where hundreds of his old patients, admirers and medical professionals gathered.

Cherian, who was for long associated with the Railway Hospital, Perambur, had the distinction of performing the first open heart surgery in the country. He was known to possess a good memory and was the ray of hope for thousands of patients throughout the country.

He was also famous for his simplicity - he went to the extent of refusing to accept the Padma Bhushan from the President because he shunned publicity and asked for it to be sent to his house.

After finishing his medical degree and specialisation in Madras Medical College in 1944, he worked as Chief Medical Officer in the Railway Hospital, Perambur, for several years. But he quit the job to be associated first with the Vijaya Hospitals, then Devaki Hospital and later for nearly two decades at Chennai Kaliappa Hospital.

Medical circles recall that he left the Railway Hospital because the administrative work that he had to shoulder gave him less time to practise medicine.

He made these hospitals famous among the public - “Dr Cherian hospital” - this was what these hospitals were called, a medical practitioner known to Cherian said.

Rabia Syed, whose husband had been consulting Cherian for a back ailment for several years, said that the doctor’s patience, benevolence and dedication won people’s hearts. He could attend to 70 patients a day even when he was 84 years old, she said.

“He was a class apart, and even remitted the bills of economically weaker patients many a time,” said Razia Hasan, who has been his patient since 1983.

Rajagopal, another of Cherian’s patients, described him as most trust-worthy. “He had the ability to just look at the person or feel his pulse and find out his health problem. Cherian would listen to his patients with patience and care and direct them to the specialist concerned,” he added.

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"

Dr.Cherian, the Cardiologist, committed sucide at the age of 86,...............very very sad news. May reach his soul to the God's hand.

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