Dr. Nirmala Tummalapenta Rao is a medical consultant at the Montefiore Medical Center & Hospital in New York. She is a geriatrician in the USA for some time now.
Dr. Nirmala Tummalapenta Rao is a medical consultant at the Montefiore Medical Center & Hospital in New York. She is a geriatrician in the USA for some time now.
Dr.Nirmala was born and brought up in Coimbatore by her parents Prabha, Rajasekhar of B.K.R. Perfumery and she moved over to the USA after marrying Srinivasa Rao of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
She had done her schooling at the St. Josephs Matriculation School and later went to the P.S.G.R. Krishnammal Higher Secondary School.
Thereafter she did her medicine at the Coimbatore Medical College. On reaching the USA she did her post-graduation from the Cornell University by associating herself with the Methodist Hospital in New York.
Now she has over 20 years of experience in geriatrics and obesity management. Dr. Nirmala frequents her hometown, Coimbatore in order to meet up her family and she spoke exclusively to Simplicity during her recent visit.
“We take our patients through the journey of life under all kinds of circumstances based on a holistic approach. It’s the general practice not to tell the terminally ill patients as to how long they may live but we prepare them for their journey to the very end of their times with utmost care and concern. Everyone is told that death is equally as important as birth and it is an undeniable truth”.
“Besides all this, the elderly are taught how to reframe hope. They are made to understand that every iota of time is useful and significant in its own way. It is also important to prepare the family when the patient is about to undertake a journey into eternity. Once the patient goes away, the pain is with the family and therefore it is essential that this aspect is addressed with grace and kindness, “shared the concerned geriatrician.
Dr. Nirmala had worked with the Jewish Home & Hospital earlier and she continues to work as a consultant geriatrician with them. While the oldest patient treated by her was about 116 years of age the average age of people being treated by her is about 90 years! The 80-year-olds are told that they are really young and one of her patients happened to be a Nobel Laureate. She offers palliative care in a hospice in New York.
“Once a person begins with us, we work towards prioritizing for they will have a laundry list of problems. We will pick the first three of the issues and set up a scheme eventually. This ' plan of care ' will ensure that the smaller issues are dealt with once the roadmap is ready.
The uniqueness of geriatric care is that they have a different set of symptoms and these are integrated with knowledge, wisdom in order to be addressed. In the process, a very intimate relationship evolves as a product of the care provided and the whole thing becomes reciprocal. Many of the seniors know me so well that on seeing my face they will know whether I am hungry or not. Once they decipher that I am hungry they will go ahead and get me some food to eat. In certain cases, some of the patients who wish to direct their Medicare with regard to the use of ventilators or other life support devices do so through the ' Advance Directives '. Their health care proxy is made aware of this document which contains their Medicare directive, “added the doctor who was keen to share her experience.
Dr. Nirmala made her conversation even more informative by sharing details about the experiences of some of her patients who had been through the First World War. She narrated the stories connected with patients who had been through the Nazi concentration camps in Europe. There were the instances when airdropped food was shared by the whole group and the mother used to make sacrifices in the interest of her kids.
“Love is always contagious. The people who experienced kindness tend to be very generous and humane. We come from a family which was always full of love. This has helped me in my profession. However, it was my elder sister's illness which made me pursue medicine. Again being a physician made me think out of the box and the opportunities in the USA has really made me what I am., " smiled Dr. Nirmala.
Dr. Nirmala wants to increase awareness about preventive healthcare in India. She wants to stimulate the thought process and wants concerned people to come up with an answer. The formative years of her career had been full of challenges and thanks to her ecosystem in the USA it had been possible to come up in life.
While signing off Dr. Nirmala spoke about the practice called ' Ethical Will ' in the USA. “Normally the will or testament of a person talks about the details of the assets and name of the beneficiaries of the same.
However, the ethical will of a person talks about the morals, etiquette, beliefs along with the positive philosophy that guides a person through life. The executor of an ethical will passes on these noble traits through a veritable document which will act as a beacon light to the ones who wish to follow him or her on just going through the document. The executors consider it to be a testament that had governed their life and they wish that it be passed over to their heirs and the society. We try to assist our senior patients while drafting their ethical will. The ethical will is an important document which will go a long way and the geriatrician should ensure that the patients who wish to create it are taken through the process comfortably, “ opined the hard-working physician Dr. Nirmala.
The valuable experiences of this Coimbatore- born doctor who has made it big in the USA will add to the fount of knowledge and the same can be of great use to the public.