Hematology all time.

Burkitt, the name sounds very familiar to all of us, as we all know Burkitt lymphoma. When I went through his discovery story, many things fascinated and inspired me. And I am sharing my thoughts here. Burkitt lost his right eye at the age of eleven, but still he dint loose hope, he went to school, pursued medicine and he became a surgeon too. How much perseverance hardwork and involvement he must have put to reach the heights of a discoverer, with only one eye. Burkitt was service oriented, and hence he volunteered for the Colonial Medical Service in West Africa. Burkitt describes himself as a ‘simple bush surgeon’. He increased the number of surgeries from 17 to 600 with only one doctors’ assistance. Again it shows his hardwork, interest and passion for work. Burkitt went on a three-month trip, travelled 10000 miles, covering 57 hospitals in eight countries, popularly known as the long safari. He regarded this long safari as a holiday with purpose. What a dedic

My earlier knowledge about Burkitt was only about Burkitt lymphoma. I knew that he was also called ‘Fibre man’, because of his contributions in fibre hypothesis, only when I started reading about him in detail for my posts. I guess many of you also might not have known earlier. I wrote so many posts about fibre hypothesis and the people who contributed and influenced this ‘Fibre man’. Let me sum up all the previous posts, so that it makes easy for everyone. There was a single Eureka moment in the story of discovery of Burkitts lymphoma, which was isolating Epstein Barr virus from Burkitt lymphoma, proving it to be the etiology. But in fibre hypothesis, there was not single but many new significant findings, each contributed by different people, working at different places. Pictures taken from   John H. Cummings and Amanda Engineer. Denis Burkitt and the origins of the dietary fi bre hypothesis. Nutrition Research Re

Hi friends, This should have been my first blog actually… But when I started writing, even I was not aware that I will be writing about non- hematology topics and presently fibre hypothesis in my blog. Since so many non-hematology posts coming up, I thought let me write a post clarifying it. First, let me tell you how this blog started... I am a doctor, pathologist, hematopathologist from a small beach town, French Capital of India, Pondicherry.  I am interested in hematology, and I am more curious, I get motivated, inspired when I read about the history of various inventions and discoveries.  I used to take active part in quiz related to hematology and that’s how I started reading various articles about stories related to discoveries and the people related to them. Yes, I felt like reading a story. I never felt like reading an article or something related to subject. The more I was reading, I was going deep into it and slowly it became my hobby.   I was keen

I have already introduced this eminent physician in my previous post, The man with one eye and his discoveries- Part 1. Hugh Trowell was born on July 1904.   He did his schooling at Reigate Grammar School.   He qualified medicine at St Thomas ’ s Hospital in London in 1928. He got married the same year to Margaret Sifton.   In 1929, he joined the Colonial Medical Service, Kenya. He then moved to Uganda. He worked as a senior physician and paediatrician   at the Mulago Hospital, Kampala from 1935 to 1958. Burkitt joined the same hospital in 1948. This is where Trowell and Burkitt met. Where and how did Trowell come in the fibre story? Was it when they worked together in Mulago hospital? Read further to know the answers for this… From 1930 to 1958, he studied and worked on kwashiorkor in Uganda.   He was one of the first who recognized the concept non-communicable diseases. Though he was late in the fibre story, but he made significant contributions to the fi bre hyp