The Accidental Doctor

On May 23rd, 2021, Dr Pavuluri Narayana left his body aged 91.

3 decades after he shut down his clinic and a year before his passing away he looked at a brain MRI and MR spectroscopy. There were no other symptoms. The reports indicated possible cancer and suggested brain biopsy in the motor cortex exposing to a possibility of paralysis. He looks at it with a magnifying glass as his eyes are not what they use to be. And calmy says the reports are wrong, I know your body it’s not cancer or tumor and advises medication. While the best doctors in 3 continents were unwilling to make a call without a biopsy, but for him, a biopsy was an unnecessary risk path. As usual, his assessment was spot on. Medication without biopsy resolved the problem.

Every household that became his patient has experienced this, the reports are conflicting, symptoms don’t exist or don’t make sense, doctors paralyzed and the patient is getting worse. He finds a simple pathway out. This was a daily occurrence for him.

He never planned on pursuing the medical profession and chose to study medicine as a compromise for not getting a seat in engineering. He initially joined medicine to keep himself busy until he gets a seat in engineering. He was a reluctant student until a professor intervened.

He is the perfect example for the noble profession that was medicine. And will continue to remain the paragon for the medical profession.

Looking at his life why he was so successful as a doctor it all comes down to — integrity to his patient. His integrity went beyond the patient's background (rich-poor, man or women, elite-common, ability to pay etc). All of them without any exception were given his best medical attention.

He actively ensured he was never a party to the “commissions” given by providers like pharmacies, lab technicians, etc. As a result, the service providers ensured they served Dr Narayana’s patients with honesty. The samples given by medical representatives were reserved for the needy. His integrity was not limited to the compound of his clinic but the entire supply chain. For him being a doctor was neither a job nor a career not even a calling but a responsibility he had taken on himself.

The results are there for the world to see. He not only had the best outcomes but also the lowest cost. He often said his costs are low as his outcomes are best.

He often said to his next-generation doctors that they will never be able to match his stature not out of any arrogance or pride but as a result of the assessment of reality.

To him, the doctor-patient relationship was sacred and goes beyond any oath or contract. He took the responsibility for that integrity. His integrity was not limited to behaving ethically. It went beyond social niceties, conditioning, and training.

He always maintained this capability is not unique to him and can be replicated. This was not his humility speaking but an observation.

It was that integrity that allowed him to built deep insights into patients going well beyond common understanding and protocols. His hard work and experience were built on his integrity. It was his uncompromising integrity to his patients that revealed their afflictions to him by a mere look. His integrity to his patients remained with him long after he shut down his medical practice until he left his body.

In his retirement he would continue to serve, people would come to him as a last resort hoping for a breakthrough which they would get. He was a silent observer of the degradation of medical decisions taken by the best of the lot. He would quietly advise his patients without creating any conflict and send them back to their doctor with updated understanding.

Great advances in medical technology, evolution, and codification of ethical standards, medical insurance, and oversight have not improved patient outcomes for the overwhelming majority neither have they reduced the cost of healthcare.

Today, every medical professional is in a state of conflict when attending to a patient. The conflicts of ethics, law, establishment, insurance, peer pressure make the integrity to the patient impossible. These conflicts have become part of the collective subconscious of the medical profession and decisions are made out of this conflicted mind.

For Dr Narayana when seeing a patient none of these conflicts exist. It is this conflict-free mind that comes from integrity.

The collective has managed to wipe out remnants of any traces of integrity to patients in the health ecosystem.

Doctors like Pavuluri Narayana are needed now more than ever to restore the nobility of the once noble profession who take up the responsibility for that integrity.