Dr S Padmavati, India’s first female cardiologist passed away at the age of 103 on Sunday (30th August) due to COVID-19.
For the uninitiated, Dr Padmavati was born in 1917 in Myanmar (was then called Burma) and she went on to become an eminent cardiologist who was popularly also known as ”God Mother of Cardiology”.
She came to India in 1942, during the World War II and she graduated from the Rangoon Medical College before going overseas for higher education. After returning to India, she joined as the faculty at the Lady Hardinge Medical College.
In 1962, she founded the All India Heart Foundation and also set up National Heart Institute in 1981 as a tertiary care modern heart hospital in Delhi with the first cardiac catheterisation laboratory in the private sector in the Southern Hemisphere.
In 1954, she set up the first cardiac clinic and cardiac cath lab in North India. She was an amazing, inspiring personality who worked 12 hours a day, 5 days a week; even at the age of 103.
For her contributions to the development of cardiology in India, she was awarded Fellowship of the American College of Cardiology and FAMS. She was also honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1967 and Padma Vibhushan in 1992 by the Government of India.
People on Twitter also paid their respects.
Dr Padmavati developed pneumonia in both lungs and needed ventilator support but, she sustained a cardiac arrest and passed away on Sunday.
May her soul rest in peace.