Riju James

Saw a patient today with a hemoglobin of 1.9 g/dL. For context, a level that low is almost incompatible with normal consciousness, but she walked right into the clinic on her own feet. For three long years, she lived with crushing weakness and since last 6 months breathlessness from just walking across a room. Why didn’t she get help sooner? At first, it was because the kids had crucial school exams and later her husband was reluctant to deal with the hassle of a hospital admission. Her health was treated as a background inconvenience. When we dug deeper, it got worse. A year ago, her Hb was 6.4 g/dL. A doctor explicitly told them she needed immediate admission. The family refused, walked out with a basic strip of iron tablets, she took them for two weeks, forgot about them, and nobody in the house ever bothered to check on her or remind her. She didn't even come to the hospital today because of the air hunger. She came because her periods had completely stopped for months. Her body was so profoundly starved of iron and oxygen that it literally shut down her reproductive axis just to divert what little blood she had left to her heart and brain. It’s completely heartbreaking. A woman will literally bleed her body dry, gasp for air for years and keep working silently, only to be brought to a doctor when her normal functioning stops. Please check on the women in your homes. Stop letting them normalize chronic exhaustion.

A simple prescription to live a healthier life in India. - Consume 100 g protein - Eat 30 g fibre daily - Stop watching news channels - Belly fat is a massive red flag - Even 1 drop of alcohol is harmful - Whey protein is safe for you - Green tea is harmful - Creatine is safe for healthy individuals - Hitting the gym is your responsibility - Eating high protein diet is a must - Building muscle >> losing weight - Running on Indian streets is stupid - Never argue with UP/HR thar drivers - Smoking and alcohol will kill you - Government wants you to be fat - Never argue with society uncle on food - Home food is not always healthy - Air quality in India is a joke

Would love to see Shashi Tharoor as VP and then preside over Rajya Sabha and say “I beseech you to desist from this cacophonous conflagration of discordant voices, which, in its untrammelled vociferousness, threatens to vitiate the hallowed sanctity of this parliamentary sanctum”

If you are forced to turn your neck and head to the right and look at the board on your right (or left) and keep the head in that position for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week 15 percent of you are going to develop very serious neck issues 50 percent of you are going to develop serious neck issues -oOo- Those kids wearing specs will have another problem When are they forced to look to the side, they will be seeing through the periphery of the glasses and not the optic centre of the lens in the specs This will create more strain on the eyes -oOo- In short, we are going to see more headaches and more neck pain to begin with and if this continues, much serious problems for these kids all their lives -oOo- In an attempt to score brownie points by claiming to have solved a trivial issue, they are introducing more serious problem in kids This is going to end up the same way as they chased those sparrows -oOo- Those who are going to cite the U tables in conference halls and board rooms to defend this stupidity are requested to sit on the side of their halls and try watching two movies continuously in your TV -oOo- வாரத்திற்கு 5 நாட்கள், தினமும் 6 மணிநேரம் ஒரே பக்கமாக கழுத்தையும் தலையையும் திருப்பினால் கழுத்தில் உள்ள எலும்புகளும் தசைகளும் பாதிக்கப்படும். கண்ணாடி அணிந்த குழந்தைகள் கண்ணாடியின் ஒளி மையம் (லென்சின் ஆப்டிக் செண்டர்) வழியாக பார்க்காமல் பக்கவாட்டின் மூலம் பார்ப்பதால் கண்ணின் நெருக்கடி அதிகரிக்கும். தலைவலி கழுத்து வலி வரும் குழந்தைகளின் முதலில் அதிகரிக்கும். அதன் பிறகு நிரந்தரமாக அவர்களின் கழுத்தும், பார்வையும் பாதிக்கப்படும் காண்ரன்ஸ் அறைகளில் இருக்கும் U மேசைகளை காட்டி வாதாட நினைக்கும் நண்பர்கள், உங்கள் வீட்டின் டிவிக்கு முன் அமராமல் பக்கவாட்டில் அமர்ந்து 6 மணி நேரம் இரண்டு படங்களை பார்த்து விட்டு பிறகு பேசவும்

Another DNB thesis lands in my inbox—joining its MD cousins. My task is to evaluate it. A formality, really. The postgraduate has written it, the professor has supervised it—or so the paperwork claims. I enter the username, type the password, and open the file—without hope. An immaculate PDF appears. Crisp formatting. Polished grammar. Elegant English. Tables aligned with military precision. P-values refusing to cross the 𝘓𝘢𝘹𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘬𝘩𝘢- the 0.05 threshold. It looks like research, but it isn’t science. There is no question, no curiosity, no wonder. Only data, arranged to pass. Methods are borrowed. Results, brazenly copied. Plagiarism software outwitted. This isn’t scholarship. It’s certification. What happened? There was a time when the thesis was a rite of passage—typed line by line, slowly, painfully. Pages corrected, retyped, carried with care and pride. Imperfect, yes, but sincere. Today, a ghostwriter assembles your thesis while you sleep. For a fee, you purchase data and lease your integrity. Each thesis I read tells the same silent tale: borrowed questions, recycled methods, conclusions without meaning. The student doesn't understand it. The guide doesn’t care. The institution demands compliance, not curiosity. How did we get here? First came the software. Then the internet. Medical colleges mushroomed. Degrees multiplied. But the time to teach research disappeared. So did the desire to learn it. The rot spread—quietly, completely, from the top down. Truth, today, is casualty. We’ve made deception routine. We've taught our students that science is not a way of thinking, but a passport to the MD exams. That it is easier to fake findings than to ask questions. That looking like a scientist matters more than thinking like one. This is not just bad science. This is anti-science. And no one pauses. Not the student. Not the guide. The department head does not care. The Dean looks the other way. The examiner does not blow the whistle. Not even the journal editor who may one day publish this charade. With in-house journals and institutions chasing publication metrics, every thesis stands a near-certain chance of getting published. And ignored. We are not training scientists. We are producing impostors. We must stop. Scrap the thesis, if we must. Yes, stop them. At the very least, don’t compel students to partake in this parody. Let them learn honesty before technique. Let them fail truthfully, rather than succeed through fraud. Sir Doug Altman, the British statistician, warned us in the 𝗕𝗠𝗝 in 1994: “𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩, 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴.” He was right then. He is right now. The publish-or-perish culture lives on. But the tragedy is this: we are publishing—and still perishing. #research #thesiswriting

IBS patients need empathy, dietary advice, and proper treatment? Nah, let’s just label them ‘anxious’ and hand them antispasmodics. Problem solved, right? #GITwitter

CMC Vellore ranked 2nd among multispeciality hospitals in the country. 1st among private multispeciality hospitals. @TheWeekLive theweek.in/theweek/cover/…

MBBS final exam medical students scored 44% on average and got mauled by ChatGPT 3.5, not even close to cutting edge, scored 67%. $20/mo subscription is far more knowledgeable than your doctor

#Solidarity with medical fraternity; condemnation of violence against #Healthcare professionals, especially #women. CMC Vellore stands in solidarity with victim & family of heinous assault; all acts of violence an affront to principles of our profession & the values we hold dear

At the stroke of midnight hour , as the world sleeps , India woke up to mob violence, rape and murder. When a doctor can't even walk freely in their work space, How can we then call ourselves Independent? Happy Independence day #JusticeForRGKar #IndependenceDay2024

#HealthBudget No. of times #UnionBudget2024 speech mentions words : Health: 4 Medical: 2 Medicines: 1 Nutrition: 0 The only health related announcements: 1. Customs duties exemption on 3 cancer drugs 2. Reduction of duties on certain x-ray devices #NirmalaSitharaman #Health

Though She still does work ,she doesn't have to solely depend on her daily wage work which is unstable and unpredictable for certain daily necessities. How often we think less of 1000 Rupees yet How big an impact it can make in the health and daily living of someone's life ! 9/-

They are able to eat a bit more , able to add fruits and vegetables to their diet .They are able spend on transportation to nearby tertiary care GH (which is 24kms away). 8/

#OPD_stories A 55 year old man came with his wife to my OPD at a rural hospital. Medically he had Hypertension, Diabetes, old stroke that was partially treated with now new onset weakness in his hands and legs  for which appropriate diagnosis and treatment is being done. 1/