It was indeed propitious that I along with my colleague Sr. Casilda from Jeevodaya, Chennai were among the selected few to undergo the WHO sponsored training in Palliative care in UK in 1994 under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Twycross and his teammate Ms. Gilly Burns. Much has been said about his academic qualifications and achievements but to me he was a teacher par excellence. He gave us a strong grounding in PC and here are some pearls from his seminal lectures…
- Attention to detail.. emphasizing the need for meticulous History taking and Clinical Examination
- Ass _ U_ ME… (Fallacy of Assuming)
- Review! Review! Review! … Necessity of revisiting symptoms frequently
- PC is ‘High touch, low tech’ contrary to what medical professionals are heading to now ‘High tech and low (or no) touch’
Words embedded in stone for generations to follow.
We were very fortunate to get to know the personal side of Dr. Robert too. A soft spoken, kind-hearted person who understood his students well and could give them his personal attention. He and his wife Deidre bestowed parenteral love and affection on all of us Indian students when we were beginning to get home sick. Who can forget the aroma of dhal and rice when we entered his house on invitation for lunch… It nearly brought tears to our eyes, a bunch of Indians starving for Indian food… A perfect example of ‘Attention to detail!’
Dr. Robert was the first to introduce PC to Tamil Nadu by conducting a Workshop in PC.