Prof. Dr. Balasubramaniam Ramamurthi

🇮🇳 The Pride of India 🇮🇳

Jan 30, 1922 – Dec 13, 2003

Father of Indian Neurosurgery

Founder of Madras Institute of Neurology

His contributions…

🔸Ramamurthi was born in Tamil Nadu at a small town Sirkazi, Tanjore District. Since childhood he was inspired by his father who was a doctor in Government Service. Sadly, he lost his mother at his five and a half years of age.

🔸He was basically studious, therefore secured state rank in intermediate studies and then joined to study medicine at Madras Medical College (MMC), Chennai. While studying medicine, he received many awards including Johnstone Gold Medal. During his college life, he fell in love with his classmate Dr. Indra Lakshmipathi and got married in 1943.

🔸Afterthat, he completed his MS degree in1947 and FRCS at Edinburgh.

🔸As he was suggested by his surgery professor, he got into neurosurgery specialization. By the support of his family, he spent two years in hands on training in various neuro surgical centers in Europe and also in Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada.

🔸After his training, he joined as an Assistant Surgeon in his Alma Mater, MMC. After crossing many obstacles and challenges, he developed exclusive neurosurgery department and further established Madras Institute of Neurology (MIN) in 1950.

🔸Infact, MIN was the second neuroscience department started in India next to Prof. Dr. Jacob Chandy, who started Neurosurgery department at Christian Medical College, Vellore a few months earlier.

🔸Prof. B. Ramamurthi (fondly called as Prof. BRM or Chief) dedicated his professional life completely on developing the neurosurgical department and did many brain surgeries.

🔸During 1960, he started a stereotaxic surgery unit, which is a minimally invasive neuro surgery. Here, he trained and mentored a galaxy of doctors for doing stereotactic procedures and made MMC an international acclaim in the field of stereotactic surgery.

🔸Further in association with other giants in the field like Prof. Chandy, Dr. Baldev Singh and Dr. S. T. Narasimhan, Prof. BRM established the Neurological Society of India at Chennai in 1951.

🔸Prof. BRM became the Founder-secretary of the society and also the Founder-editor of the society's official journal, Neurology India.

🔸After his retirement in 1978, he devoted his last twenty-five years of his life to build the Achanta Lakshmipathi Neurosurgical Center and Post Graduate Institute of Neurological Surgery in the Voluntary Health Services (VHS) Hospital, Chennai. Thereby, he became the trendsetter in starting the private academic neurosurgical training institutions.

🔸Moreover, he authored and co-authored over 300 scientific papers and co-edited the

🔅Textbook of Neurosurgery (Three editions) and
🔅Textbook of Operative Neurosurgery

🔸Also, he extended his support to establish the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar, Haryana, an apex center for neuroscience research.

🔸He was decorated with various awards including Dhanwantri award, Padma Shri (1972) and Padma Bhuşhan (1977) from Government of India.

🔸He released his impressive autobiography "Uphill all the way" in the year 2000. Also, Prof. B. Ramamurthi Neurosciences Museum was established at the VHS Hospital campus, Chennai on his 80th birthday in 2002.

🔸One of his favorite quotation

"To reach the unreachable star,
It is my quest to follow the star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far."

A Day to Commemorate....

The Neurosurgeon with Incredible Legacy
Prof. Dr. B. Ramamurthi🙏🏼