Letter From the President: Dr. Ganraj Kumar: Putting Prevention into Practice

Every once in a while, you are lucky to meet a role model of yours and this past Sunday was such a day for me!
 
While visiting Toronto, I had the good fortune to meet with Dr. Ganraj Kumar, the physician in the early 1970s, who took care of my grandmother when she suffered a myocardial infarction. It was at that time, seeing the extraordinary work he was doing under difficult circumstances in Guyana, that I decided to become a physician. In a wide ranging conversation lasting over two hours, Dr. Kumar shared in his most generous manner, wisdom accumulated from his practice of medicine for nearly 60 years.

Dr. Kumar‘s expert care of my grandmother was instrumental in keeping her alive and she would go on to live a long life, before passing away in the 1980s in New York City. He also took care of my cousin when she was diagnosed with meningitis. While she had previously been under the care of another physician, it was on Dr. Kumar’s advice, as recalled by my uncle, that her antibiotics were increased and she recovered with only some residual hearing loss. Additionally, an older cousin recalls that Dr. Kumar was the physician who, despite doing everything he could, came home to tell her father that my uncle had sadly passed away at the age of 57, from a cerebrovascular accident. Thus, Dr. Kumar was a general physician for all of the family, and someone for us youngsters with dreams of one day becoming physicians to try and emulate. 
Currently, Dr. Kumar is still a practicing cardiologist in the greater Toronto area. He trained at McGill University in Canada, went back to work in Guyana in 1967 and subsequently only left in 1984 for Canada, when the political climate became too dangerous for him to continue to live there.
 
It had become dangerous for Dr. Kumar to live in Guyana because he had had the audacity to put Dr. Rudolf Virchow’s famous statement “Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale”¹, into practice. By forming the Liberator Party in June 1973, contesting the elections there that year and for documenting that the ruling PNC party had rigged the elections, Dr. Kumar was charged with publication of seditious libel.² Photographs were taken and the public was made aware of the machinations of the military and the police transporting ballot boxes to their respective headquarters, and not to the central polling station.² During those elections, two people, Jagan Ramessar and Bholanauth Parmanand, lost their lives trying to ensure a free and fair election in Guyana in 1973. Fortunately, after a long trial, the case against Dr. Kumar was dismissed.²
 
In talking with Dr. Kumar, especially having practiced as a cardiologist for about 60 years, he focused on the foundational importance of preventive medicine and primary care for patients to avoid needing the services of cardiologists, nephrologists, surgeons, etc., with end-stage diseases, early in their lives. These bad outcomes result from poor preventive medicine practices and care throughout life, he said.
 
An avid gardener, he showed me the produce he is growing in his backyard in the summertime, from where he gets and consumes most of his vegetables, as his diet is primarily a vegetarian one. In line with the principles of lifestyle medicine, he talked about the importance of getting regular exercise, enough sleep, maintaining social connections, avoid alcohol, tobacco, etc., while managing stress well, so that even now at age 89, he can continue to practice medicine as a cardiologist three days a week.
 
Dr. Kumar is an extraordinary individual indeed, an exemplary example of how to live one’s life well and an inspiration for so many of the physicians who grew up in Guyana and learned from him or heard about the stellar care he provided to and continues to provide to his patients. A true inspiration, he talked about living in harmony by practicing what we preach and implementing the principles of prevention and lifestyle medicine in our daily lives. Additional, from his political struggles, it is worthwhile remembering that politics is nothing but medicine on a larger scale.
 
Sources:

1. Mackenbach JP. Politics is nothing but medicine at a larger scale: reflections on public health’s biggest idea. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2009;63:181-184.
2. 2.Kumar G. Dr Mangal was dedicated to defending the sanctity of the ballot box. Stabroek News 2015 October 15