Leading dermatologist and cosmetologist G.R. Ratnavel was declared brain-dead here on Sunday. He was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals in Tiruchi after he collapsed during a visit to the Rockfort temple here a couple of days ago.

Dr. Ratnavel (50), who headed the Department of Cosmetology at the Government Stanley Medical College, Chennai, was in Tiruchi to attend a conference of dermatologists.

Organ harvest

His family has given its consent to donate his organs, Ratnavel’s father-in-law Maha Krishnan, a senior dermatologist who was also in Tiruchi to attend the same conference, said.

Dr. Ratnavel is credited with having established the first cadaver skin bank at the Stanley Medical College and the Department of Cosmetology at the same institution.

He collapsed while worshipping at the Uchi Pillaiyar shrine atop the Rockfort on Friday morning. He was carried by a few people down and taken in an autorickshaw to a nearby private hospital. He was then shifted to Apollo Hospitals in Tiruchi as he was also a consultant with the hospital in Chennai.

Hospital sources said he was brought in an unconscious state and had suffered intracranial haemorrhage. Having got the consent of the family to retrieve the vital organs, the process of harvest of lung, kidneys, heart, cornea and skin would be done at the Apollo Hospitals here late on Sunday evening, sources said.

Barring the lungs and skin which would be sent to Fortis Malar Hospital at Chennai and Stanley Medical College respectively, the other organs would be sent to few private hospitals in Tiruchi, the sources added.

The post-mortem is expected to be done at the Government Hospital in Tiruchi on Monday. The funeral will take place at Chennai, his family circles said.

Dr. Ratnavel has trained many cosmetic surgeons, said Tiruchi-based senior dermatologist N. Balasubramanian.

Doctors at Government Stanley Medical College were shocked and grieved over the brain death of Dr. Ratnavel, who was the head of the cosmetology department and had served in the hospital for over a decade.

“It was Dr. Ratnavel who developed the cosmetology department — there is no other such department in any government hospital here,” said hospital dean Ponnambalam Namasivayam.

Cadaver skin bank

Dr. Ratnavel spearheaded the setting up of a cadaver skin bank at the hospital, the first of its kind in the government health system in the State. The skin bank, opened in August, stores harvested donor skin that can then be used on individuals as a temporary skin covering cases of burns or acute skin failure as a dressing.

“We have lost a very good colleague,” said V. Anandan, head of the dermatology department, who was with Dr. Ratnavel at the conference in Tiruchi. “He has done so much for the institution. This will be a huge loss to the hospital,” said K. Kannan, head of the cardiology department.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / R. Rajaram / Tiruchi-Chennai, October 10th, 2016