Disease Detectives

Detecting diseases, and curing them - that's what my grandfather did. Dr Sanna Rangegowda was a medical practitioner. Before he retired, he was a Medical Officer of Health in the city of Bangalore, he founded Sri Ram Clinic and he taught medicine at M.S. Ramaih College. 

As a child, my grandfather lived in a small rural village in south India. He woke up before sunrise every day, and helped his father feed water and water the animals. Only then would he go to school. He went to the government school in his village. Due to his humble upbringing, my grandfather learned how difficult life was for some people. When he graduated from Bangalore medical college,  he wanted to open a clinic and help people who were in need. However, he doubted that he would be able to make a living by just opening a clinic. As a result, he became a Medical Officer of Health in the day, to secure funds for his clinic. Then, in the night, he would treat all the patients that came to his clinic. 

As a Medical Officer of Health, he managed 20 - 30 health inspectors. Each of these inspectors had a designated area, in which they would look for the rise of any epidemic diseases or hygiene issues. If there were any issues, the inspector would organize a medical team to decide the next steps. Then, the medical team would try to discover and neutralize the cause of infection.

He also opened Sri Ram Clinic, a private institute where he used to treat people. He didn’t charge a lot, and if people didn’t have any money, he treated them for free. In his time, there weren’t many tests, so it was harder to diagnose the diseases. There also weren’t many doctors then, and there were people lining up at the door till 12 in the night. However, he said he felt immense satisfaction by helping the people, as he felt like he was saving lives.

After he retired, he switched professions, and became a teacher at M.S Ramaiah college, where he taught social medicine. He enjoyed this much more, since he didn’t have to deal with any bureaucratic issues.

Opening a clinic seems interesting to me. Since I would be building it from scratch, I would be independent, and no one would be in charge of me. I also could help treat patients with illnesses, and would be able to possibly help save lives. However, opening a clinic would also be hard. Since I am starting from scratch, I would have to fund everything myself, and, at the start, I would struggle to make a profit. I would also need an MD or a PHD, and a medical license, all of which are hard to obtain. Despite all of this, I still believe that becoming a doctor would be worth it. However, I don’t think that I would like to be a medical officer for the government. Working for the government seems too restrictive, and it would be very hard to move up the hierarchy.