It is said that, ‘Doctors are like Gods on Earth’ and a kind soul who was a living testament to this quote breathed his last on Wednesday, leaving behind hundreds of people mourning his loss.
Dr. S Jayachandran was a very famous doctor in Northern Chennai, highly respected for his selfless service to several patients and he passed away at the age of 71 on 20th December.
Why ‘Five-Rupees’ Doctor?
Dr. Jayachandran was known popularly as ‘five-rupees’ doctor across the state of Tamil Nadu as he didn’t charge more than Rs. 5 as his consultation fee from any patient.
He worked selflessly for the poor and underprivileged working class people and would often treat them for free. He wouldn’t ask for any kind of fees from his patients and if they wanted to, they could pay him Rs. 5 or Rs. 10 according to their means.
For this reason, locals lovingly called him ‘5 rooba doctor’ or ‘2 rooba doctor’.
Once talking to an NGO, he said,
“I have a principle to not force people to pay the money. I take money only if they willingly give it. If they don’t, I don’t ask for it at all. I do not want to commercialize what I learnt. I am running this clinic without any caste, creed, or religious differences. The thing I love the most in the world is being a doctor. The happiness and satisfaction one receives while saving a life cannot be compared to anything else in the world.”
But being a Good Samaritan didn’t restrict Dr. Jayachandran to treat only the poor, he even had patients coming to see him from far and wide and when these patients would insist him to take his due fees, he’d ask them to buy medicines for his store instead. That way, he would distribute these medicines to the patients who couldn’t afford them.
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Popularity Among Patients
An old friend of the doctor told a publication that he would arrange auto rickshaws for patients who had no money to pay for transport. He further said,
‘‘He would even give them money to buy footwear if they were diabetic or had any foot injury.’’
Apart from working round the clock at his clinic, he even set up a number of free camps in the interiors of Tamil Nadu, helping the needy and poor alike.
Dr Jayachandran was born to parents of little means in a small village in Kancheepuram district and yet completed his schooling and joined Madras Medical College in 1970.
Maybe this is the reason why he devoted his life to the service of the poorest of the poor without any selfish motive.
The Tamil movie, ‘Mersal’ was also inspired by him.
A Beacon of Light For The World
It is indeed a great loss for Chennai as well as for the entire world, for it has lost not only a selfless soul but also someone who challenged the way things work in our system today.
Doctors these days play with the lives of their patients in order to make big bucks. Everyday, a new case of medical fraud is reported and everyday, hundreds of lives are lost to the same cause.
According to a report by World Health Organization in 2018, about 57.3% of doctors in India do not possess any kind of medical degree and about 31.4% have been educated only up to a secondary level.
Shocking, isn’t it?
In such a scenario, it is difficult to believe that people like Doctor Jayachandran walked upon this earth for 71 long years, sacrificing his entire life in the service of mankind.
We hope that medical practitioners in India and all over the world take inspiration from Dr. Jayachandran and realize the significance and power of their jobs.
Sources: Times Now, India Times, Indian Express + more
Image Credits: Google Images
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