Mrs AVN College

 I studied intermediate between 1972-74 at Mrs AVN College, Visakhapatnam when Sri.Divakarla Rama Murthy Garu was our Principal. He used to be very fond of me because I won many prizes in Hindi intercollegiate debate competitions for our college. It's one of the oldest colleges in Andhra Pradesh, it has a rich history....

Sir C.V. Raman studied in this college... 

Great laureates were produced by this respected college.

Some of the distinguished alumni are...

Alluri Seetharama Raju - a great freedom fighter. Incidentally, I'm presently working at Alluri Sitarama Raju institute of medical sciences at Eluru as professor of Anaesthesiology.

Waheeda Rehman - a famous Bollywood film star also studied from Mrs AVN College. Standing strong for the past more than 160 years and still counting, AVN College, in Visakhapatnam, is one of the oldest colleges in the whole of Andhra Pradesh. My grandfather used to say that we are related to Mrs AVN Row. In his will dated 8th may, 1892, Sri AVN Row garu donated 11 acres of his land with a palatial building, a lakh of rupees and a building grant of Rs. 15,000/-, hence the name, ‘Mrs. AVN College’, after his wife🙏🙏

Avid readers

 During my student days, I never missed buying peanuts while traveling in a train. Train journey becomes very pleasant if we sit next to a window and eat peanuts while reading a magazine. Peanuts are the cheapest available nuts at the same time it's full of calories and a great source of proteins. I never missed reading the paper used as envelope for those peanuts. I always found very useful information while reading those bits of paper used for its packaging. Similarly, I find reading the information shared on social media viz Facebook and Whatsapp very informative and very interesting but occasionally the information shared is false and fake. Nevertheless, I find these titbits of information very interactive and informative. But yes, we must be wary of misleading news. Frankly, Facebook and whatsapp have made reading a pleasure and great source of fun. People who used to hate reading have become avid readers these days, thanks to Facebook and WhatsApp. Facebook has definitely improved our vocabulary, language skills and knowledge🙏🏼🙏🏼Col Pradeep Pendyala

Life of an MBBS doctor

 Everyone can't get a seat in MBBS and even if one person gets a seat, it's not easy to pass MBBS. Medicine is one of the hardest degrees in the world, not least because courses are so competitive... the volume of medical information that you have to learn and memorize to clear final exams is immense. And then, to be responsible for people's lives is the reason that studying Medicine is full of stress and challenges at every stage.The unending course and the workload is unimaginable. And it's not the end... unless you do post graduation, you're Mr Nobody. It consists of acquiring knowledge, skills observation, and judgement and patient management. And now, I think, in medical colleges, they should also start teaching the students how to save themselves from patient's relatives who makes no bones about attacking the very doctors who were trying to save them putting their own lives at risk... 🙏🏼🙏🏼Col Pradeep Pendyala

Registered as National Star in Indian society of Anaesthesiologists web page 🙏🙏

 Registered as National Star in Indian society of Anaesthesiologists web page 🙏🙏

Michael Collins

 Michael Collins the Apollo 11 astronaut aged 90 dies yesterday. 

Collins had stayed in lunar orbit as his colleagues  Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon. Today, everyone knows Neil Armstrong but nobody knows who's Michael Collins. We the Anaesthesiologists have similar experiences of not being known to the patients after major operations which were actually successful only due to the presence of a smart and intelligent Anaesthesiologist. Well, thanks to covid,  Anaesthesiologists are now well known to the world 🙏🙏 Col Pradeep Pendyala

General and me

 It was General Hasnain's official visit to the military station Saugor in 2009. He was addressing all the officers of the station. Suddenly during the talk, he asked the gathering if anyone can translate correctly the word Passion in Hindi. I raised my hand and said there's no exact translation for the word however the words Jazba and junoon are closest. He's impressed. Later, he's having tea with the officers. He desired to meet me during the tea. During the conversation, he did ask me how do I explain those two words. I said there's an element of madness in junoon whereas in jazba the person is balanced and has lots of passion for something. That was my first and last meeting with the General. Well friends, to achieve anything, we need to have these two words with us...jazba and junoon. And yes, I would suggest one more word ...mushaqqat, which means hard work 🙏🙏 Col Pradeep Pendyala

Post graduation

 Post graduation is a challenging period where you learn application of knowledge in the clinical setting. You may have hundred hobbies but you should know your priorities and also about your priority number 1. Dedication and becoming talented and passionate about the subject is the need of the hour. Love and support your parents and patients 🙏🙏 Col Pradeep Pendyala

Students

 I always wanted my students to be affable persons. He/she should have impeccable tastes in clothing, dress and fashion. They should be assiduously dedicated to Anaesthesiology as a profession. And they should be totally committed to medical education and learning. They should be friendly and fun loving...caring and honest. They should distinguish themselves as someone who's  passionate about quality of patient care and safety  Col Pradeep Pendyala 🙏🙏

Hypothyroidism in pregnancy

 Hypothyroidism in pregnancy is most common finding after diabetes in pregnancy. We should never take hypothyroidism lightly. Hypothyroidism causes more birth defects than does hyperthyroidism. Children born to mothers with severe, untreated hypothyroidism during pregnancy has chances of lower IQ scores and impaired mental development. I think, you can still have a perfectly normal child if the treatment goal is maintained at thyroid hormone level within high normal range. Col Pradeep Pendyala 🙏

Women

 I always have great regards for women ...I know too very well that they've different qualities and different skills. Frankly, they are more creative ...have more integrity and have more strength of personality. It just takes fifteen seconds to know that they're better skilled. One should learn how to multitask from them. They always act and behave in a way which I admire the most... Col Pradeep Pendyala 🙏🙏

Renal failure

 Millions die of renal failure each year. When your kidneys fail, it means they have stopped working well enough to survive without dialysis or a kidney transplant. It's also known as end stage renal disease. The most common cause being hypertension or diabetes. Treatment is either dialysis or renal transplant at a later stage. Kidney can be donated from the living donor or a deceased donor. There are legal and ethical aspects of organ transplantation. I would say, keep your kidneys healthy by healthy food, physical activity and managing your blood pressure and diabetes. Col Pradeep Pendyala 🙏🙏

Vocabulary

 Vocabulary has always fascinated me. I did read few books on vocabulary improvement but they were not much of a help. I think, it can improve only if you have good reading habit and you watch lots of movies and use dictionary or Google search more often, whenever you come across a new word. Usage of new words in your conversation or in writing would definitely improve your skills. By improving your vocabulary, you'd definitely improve your communication skills 🙏🙏Col Pradeep Pendyala

Tranexamic acid

 Postpartum haemorrhage has been a nightmare for obstetricians as well as the Anaesthesiologists since ages. Active management of the 3rd stage, in the form of intramuscular ergometrine at delivery of the anterior shoulder or 10-20 units of oxytocin infusion in 500 ml of normal saline and a controlled cord traction are practised routinely. Uterine atony, retained placentae and ruptured uteri are very often the real cause. But I also feel sincerely that morbidity in such cases do happen due to the late arrival at the hospital.As a last resort to control bleeding, major surgical interventions such as hysterectomy and bilateral uterine artery ligation are also required occasionally. In my experience, one drug which should not be forgotten in such cases is Tranexamic acid...Tranexamic acid is cheap, heat-resistant, easy to store  and it is proven to save lives. Col Pradeep Pendyala

Intralipid

 Maximum dose of lidocaine (plain, without vasoconstrictor)  is 4.5 mg/kg (not to exceed 300 mg) and similarly for Bupivacaine it's 2.5 mg /kg not to exceed 175 mg in a single dose. These figures could be read in almost all the standard text books of Anaesthesiology. But interestingly, nowhere it's written what's the safe dose of each of them when they're mixed together. As we're aware we always mix these two drugs when we give blocks. Wonder why no author has ever bothered to write about the safe dose when they're mixed. Accidental intravascular injection is the major cause of systemic toxicity, for example, regional anesthesia of the neck (interscalene block ) can cause direct intra-arterial injection and cause rapid toxicity from early entry to the cerebral circulation. Epidural anesthesia holds a risk of intravenous injection into the engorged epidural venous plexus of the parturient. The accidental overdose of local anaesthetics may prove fatal. Over the last decade, there has been convincing evidence of intravenous lipid emulsions as a rescue in local anaesthetic for  cardiotoxicity. Hence I would request all  Anaesthesiologists to keep intralipid always available in the operation theatre fridge. Col Pradeep Pendyala.