Tuberculosis was a scourge those days and thousands succumbed to it. Those were the times when plague, small pox, malaria and typhoid inflicted enormous pain consuming large parts of the population. Coimbatore and its neighbourhood suffered enormously due to the prevalence of such diseases. The locals prayed at the Dandu Mariamman temple at the times of pox and also sought relief through Plague Mariamman who is ensconced in between the Big Bazaar and Raja streets. At times of fever they used to seek the benediction of Bhadrakali Amman, who happened to be one of the "nine sisters of Coimbatore". The administrators like Hafeez Saib did much by enforcing hygiene in the city. The administration of Diwan Bahadur C.S. Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar, who was the Municipal Chairman between 1921 and 1936, created newer settlements like R.S. Puram and Ram Nagar in order to provide better living conditions. In fact the young Dr. R.K. Shanmukham Chetty (later the first Finance Minister of independent India) had to move to Race Course from the old town area in order to address his health related issues. Tuberculosis continued to afflict the local populace for decades and the doctors like the visionary Dr. N. Jaganathan were treated next to God by those whose lives he saved.
The doctor who put Coimbatore on the medical map of the country, Dr. N. Jaganathan was born to P.R. Narayana Naidu and Krishnammal on the 9th of September 1909. He did his early education at St. Michaels High School and his MBBS at the Madras Medical College by 1935. Thereafter he did his TDD Diploma at Madanapalli in 1941. Dr. Jaganathan became a member of the American Treadu Society in 1951. He got married to Vanajakshi, a gold medallist in Chemistry from the famous Queen Mary's College in 1935 and her father Muthukrishna Naidu was a Mirasdar in Sirkazhi those days. Dr. J. Sanath Kumar was born to the Jaganathan couple in 1936 and he was followed by the J. Balagopal.
Dr Jaganathan was an air warden during the times of the Second World War (1939 - 1945) and he used to wear a tropical hat with vent holes on the top of the same as part of the statutory costume. It has been possible to share the details pertaining to Dr. Jaganathan due to the efforts of his doctor son Sanath Kumar who lives along with his family in the neighbourhood of Race Course.
Dr. J. Sanath Kumar recalls: "Those were the times when fumigation was done in the case of plague and it was done in a sealed shed. Initially my father practised from Ramakrishna Medical Hall in Big Bazaar street and moved over to Dr. Nanjappa road (Jail road) by establishing a Tuberculosis Sanatorium there. Ultimately he decided to create a first of its kind facility for treating TB by founding the Coimbatore Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Peelamedu in the year 1952. The large 16 plus acre premises housed all the required facilities to treat the terrible disease.
Those days an X Ray and associated blood tests were accompanied by long treatment periods and our centre specialised in it for years. My father was of the opinion that the money earned from the better off could be used to treat the poor. Besides all this, we must remember that the family doctor culture was prevalent those days and he used to be the physician for a number of leading lights belonging to the the PSG and SNR families. Prof G.R. Damodaran and mill owner G.N. Venkatapathy were well known to him."
The Coimbatore Tuberculosis Sanatorium was inaugurated by His Highness Sri Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar, the Rajpramukh of Mysore, and its reputation attracted a number of visitors during the formative years of the republic. The Union Health Minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Dr. C. Subramaniam who happened to be the father of the Green Revolution and Dr. P.V. Benjamin, Tuberculosis Advisor to the Government of India, were among the important personages who visited this sanatorium.
Dr. Jaganathan loved cricket and he used to follow Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad. Interestingly, he was fantastic carrom player and had won several tournaments those days. He used to walk everyday in Race Course and he passed away during one of his walks on the 5th of January 1972.
The Coimbatore Tuberculosis Sanatorium was a precursor to the Coimbatore Medical College that came up later in the same neighbourhood. The sanatorium at Coimbatore was among a handful which included the ones at Perundurai, Tambaram and Senjipatti in our State. A number of people from Kerala and Tamilnadu got a permanent release from TB thanks to efforts of Dr. Jaganathan who used to reside at his art deco bungalow "Narayan Bagh" in V. Palaniswamy Naidu street off Avinashi road.
Even to this day, the neem trees that were planted in order to establish a healthy environment within the sanatorium continue to offer good breeze and shade to the denizens who live at Dr. N. Jaganathan Nagar that has come in the place of this historic medical facility. The legacy of such initiatives will sure inspire the service minded among those practising medicine in our region. If Coimbatore is a medical tourism hub today, we must remember that it began with the establishment of the Coimbatore Tuberculosis Sanatorium by Dr. N. Jaganathan.
