Dr S Padmavati, India’s 1st Female & Oldest Cardiologist, Founder of AIHF & NHI, Padma Awardee Died of COVID-19

Dr S. Padmavati Sivaramakrishna Iyer( S. I. Padmavati or S. Padmavati), India’s 1st Female & Oldest Cardiologist died at the age of 103 in National Heart Institute(NHI) due to COVID-19 infection. She was the founder of All India Heart Foundation (AIHF) and NIH, New Delhi, India and established the 1st cardiac clinic and catheterization laboratory(cath lab) at the Lady Hardinge Medical College in India(Delhi). She is popularly known as the “GodMother of Cardiology”. She was born on June 20, 1917  in Burma (now Myanmar).

• She is  the recipient of Padma Bhushan(1967) and Padma Vibhushan(1992). 

Gist about Dr S. Padmavati

Education– Apart from Rangoon Medical College, she has studied in Royal College of Physicians, London, Harvard Medical School (Harvard University). She received fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, part of Johns Hopkins University U.S.,

Work– She worked in hospitals like, the National Heart Hospital, National Chest Hospital, and the National Hospital, Queen Square, London. 

Achievements

i.Dr S. Padmavati  is the 1st female student to earn a medical degree at Rangoon Medical College, Rangoon.

ii.She initiated India’s first Doctorate of Medicine in Cardiology and other super specialities like the 1st coronary care unit and the 1st  coronary care van in India.

iii.She is the 1st and only person to be chief administrator of 3 major institutions at the same time- Maulana Azad Medical College, Lok Nayak Hospital and G.B.Pant hospital

iv.She set up cardiology departments at the Maulana Azad Medical College, G. B. Pant Hospital.

v.She established NIH under AIHF, as a tertiary care modern heart hospital in Delhi with 1st cardiac catheterisation laboratory in the private sector in the Southern Hemisphere.

Positions- She was the President of the 5th World Congress of Cardiology, New Delhi (1966)

Awards & Honours

She received Harvard Medical International Award, Dr B.C. Roy Award and Kamla Menon Research Award and Fellowship of the American College of Cardiology and FAMS among others.

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