Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2016 | Page 18

Words by Jackie McCarrick : Photos by Martin Potter

LOCAL HERO

Ramesh Babu

Photo: Mr Babu pictured with patient Pat Welsh just weeks
after her receiving surgery

18

Back in 2004 and working at a corporate Hospital in
charge of surgical facility for the poor in India, he had
never even heard of the Isle of Wight - but fast forward
to 2016 and Associate Specialist surgeon Ramesh Babu
Chandrabhan Singh has become something of a local
hero to countless local breast cancer patients on the
Island.
Known affectionately as Mr Babu, the 50 year-old
father-of-two has been widely acknowledged for his
pioneering work at St Mary’s hospital, which has now
become surgical standard practice.
By administering radio isotope injections when the
patient was under anaesthetic, rather than 3-4 hours
before surgery as was previously the norm, Mr Babu
discovered that not only were recovery results better - but
patients also reported much less pain afterwards.
“I had heard of only one other person using this
technique in the UK before I piloted the first 100 cases”
he said, “and the results were much better than I ever
expected”.
“Patients often used to report a lot of pain from the
injection, but when it was given after they had been put
to sleep, there was a noticeable improvement”.

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