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Showing posts with the label Johns Hopkins University

Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavathi, The First Indian Cardiologist

A Tamil Brahmin Indian girl the world and the people of India forgot. Every English-speaking Jesuit-educated Indian knows Florence Nightingale's story, but history has no record of Padmavathi Iyer. When women were traditionally confined to the kitchen/illiterate: In 1917, a Tamil Indian girl was born into a middle-class family in Rangoon, Burma, where her father had gone for a living. He named her Sivaramakrishna Iyer Padmavathi. At a time when women were traditionally confined to the kitchen/illiterate, this middle-class girl did MBBS from Rangoon Medical College. Then unimaginable for a Female Indian doctor: When the Japanese invaded Burma, they briefly returned to their traditional home in Coimbatore. In 1949, she went to London to do an FRCP, then unimaginable for a Female Indian doctor. She was selected to study further at Johns Hopkins University, US, where she trained under the legendary cardiologist Helen Taussig. Firm in returning to India and serving Indians: Thereafte...