She is a doctor who actually wanted to be an engineer! Gomathy Narasimhan, 41, India’s first woman multi-organ transplant surgeon says that in a way she is an engineer of sorts – putting things together and fixing things - in this case the human body. She is presently Senior Consultant, Liver & Kidney Transplant Surgery at Global Hospitals, Chennai.

Gomathy schooled in Chennai for the most part. She studied medicine at Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai where her interest in surgery was kindled. In fact, she topped her class in the subject. But it was only when she was a junior medical officer at the erstwhile Tamilnad Hospital in Chennai that surgery became a passion. The doctors and the environment there enabled great learning and that was where she met her first mentor, Dr. Shanmuga Bhaskar. He was a pioneering transplant surgeon and a man ahead of his time, she said. He encouraged her to push herself, challenge herself. He, unfortunately, passed away in 2007 at the age of 47 because of a malignancy in the kidney.

Gomathy went on to do her post-graduation in Surgery in Madras Medical College,Chennai under the able guidance of Dr.Gunasagaran. Liver transplantation was in its infancy in the late 1990s, but the idea fascinated Gomathy. She did an ASTS (American Society of Transplant Surgery) Fellowship in Abdominal Organ Transplantation (Liver, Kidney, Pancreas) from Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, USA. She then went to Kumamoto University, Japan to learn the ropes of living donor liver transplant. She says that the two other great influences were Dr. Georgi Abraham, Nephrologist, Madras Medical Mission, Chennai and her Transplant Fellowship Director in USA, Dr. Edmund Sanchez. From Dr. Abraham she learnt what it meant to be passionate about patient care. Dr. Sanchez, she said, ran the programme with military precision. His take was that the difference between a good surgeon and a great surgeon was attention to detail. Gomathy says that this ‘attention to detail’ has stood her in good stead, although at the time it felt like never-ending work.

Does she face any gender bias? She is clear that she has never faced it from patients. In fact, she feels that women have an edge over their male counterparts because in the field of transplants it is a longstanding relationship with the recipient. Empathy seems to come more naturally to women and patients seem to find it easier to talk about their personal issues with them.

In the work space, she says that a woman in surgical practice needs to be assertive. There is no quarter asked for or given. One can’t afford to be ‘weak’, either mentally or physically in a field as demanding as transplant surgery. Gomathy keeps fit by Dr. Gomathy Narasimhan doing yoga, swimming and running. She could, literally, give any man a ‘run’ for his money; after all, she runs marathons! She says that the liver transplant scene in India is extremely promising right now giving hundreds of patients a new life. Through the fellowship programme in liver transplant in her hospital (recognized by the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University and the first such programme in India), a number of doctors have been trained and are now junior consultants. She adds that one no longer needs to go abroad to train in transplant surgery. She is also vocal about the need for a transplant registry with good documentation and transplant outcomes. This is extremely essential for public trust and international credibility.

Her newest project is the National Foundation for Liver Research (NFLR), in which she is a trustee along with her colleagues at the Global Hospitals, Chennai – Dr. Priya Ramachandran and Dr. Naresh Shanmugam. The founder trustee of NFLR is Prof. Mohamed Rela. It was launched in March 2014 with the objectives of promoting scientific research in liver disease, improving public awareness about organ donation and expanding access to lifesaving liver surgery for patients irrespective of their economic background. What’s next on her calendar, we ask. Yet another grueling liver transplant surgery lined up? She says, “No, I’m running the Pinkathon for Breast Cancer Awareness!”

– Dr. Sumana Navin