The National Burns Center (NBC) promoted by
the Indian Burns Research Society is a unique and pioneering
project to tackle burns holistically. It was conceptualized by Dr. Manohar
Hariram Keswani, a doyen in the field of burn care and research. He acquired training
in burn management in Birmingham and
then in the University of Texas and the US Army Research Hospital in the United
States of America. In 1975, he set up the first paediatric Burns unit in the
country at The Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for children in Bombay and also
established the first skin bank in the year 1978. In 1992, he organised and
started a state of the art burns department at the Masina Hospital which was
called the Kharas Memorial Burns Department. In 1998, he planned and helped to
set up a 16-bedded Burns Department at the Jubilee Mission Medical College
Hospital in Trichur, Kerala, in South India for his friend and batch mate Dr. Hirji Adenwalla..
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| Dr. M.H. Keswani |
In the year 2002, he ventured on a gigantic project – the
NBC. Almost everone, friends and colleagues, advised him to abort the idea as
it was impossible for one man to complete what he had in mind. With tremendous
perseverance and courage and sinking his own meager resources in it, he founded
the National Burns Centre at Airoli in New Bombay.
The primary goal of
NBC is to evolve simplified methods of treatment to reduce cost-of-treatment
& and to give a near normal functional life to burn survivors. It was
commissioned on 5th October 2001 with 50 bed capacity. It is a holistic
specialized center of excellence for Prevention, Treatment, Training,
Rehabilitation & Research, relating to Burns.
The NBC strives to touch the life of suffering burns
patients, understand their problems and provide solutions in
terms of pain relief, scar management, deformity corrections and ultimately
physical, psychological and social rehabilitation. Its Intensive Burn Care Unit
(IBCU) was inaugurated on 2nd Aug 2009 and its skin bank was inaugurated on
21st NOV 2009. This was the first skin bank of India.
Today, the NBC is ably managed by Dr. Manohar Keswani’s
son, Dr. Sunil Keswani. Every time I see Sunil, I see a giant standing on the
shoulder of another giant. In the last two decades he has left an indelible
impression on burn care and research in our sub-continent. Almost every burn
care unit has professionals trained in his NBC and every skin bank in this part
of the world has opened by his active support and assistance.
April 8 is the birthday of Dr. Manohar Keswani and on the Sunday nearest to that date the NBC celebrates its Foundation Day. Every year it has an eminent orator delivering the Foundation Day Oration on this day to a select audience of friends and well wishers of NBC. This year they made a small compromise with their standards and I was privileged to be the orator. It was my good fortune and a fan moment to have Prof. Farokh Uduwadia, an eminent physician, a very famous author and an outstanding human being, besides being Dr. Manohar Keswani’s batch mate, presiding over the function. I have read his books Tabiyat and Man and Medicine and have had his text book ‘Principles of Critical Care’ thrown at my face every time I have argued with the Critical Care doctors.
This is the LINK to the VIDEO RECORDING of the NBC FOUNDERS
DAY PROGRAMME on April 7, 2024
Speakers
Dr Surajit Bhattacharya - Founder's Day Oration
Dr Sujit Chatterjee - Philosophy of Life and Death
Dr Priscilla Joshi - AI in Healthcare
Dr Farokh Udwadia - Remembering my batchmate Manohar Keswani
Dr Hoshang Patell - National Burns Centre and Dr. M.H. Keswani
Topic of ORATION :
MY PROBLEM WITH PROCRASTINATION
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mn9d25JMOqH8AI7w5UGLryCgPIBO8P4P/view?usp=drivesdk
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