Dr JN Pande: Pioneer and teacher who inspired all

Dr Jitendra Nath Pande, 78, retired as the head of the department of medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi more than a decade ago, but he continued treating at least 50 patients a day in private practice till before his death due to the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, on May 22.

A pulmonary specialist who advised the government on several issues, including the health impact of air pollution, Dr Pande also set up one of the first intensive care units in the country. Known fondly as an encyclopaedia of medicine and a pioneer of critical care in northern India, Pande taught and inspired a generation of doctors and medical professionals at AIIMS.

To his students, colleagues and patients, Pande was a great clinician with uncanny diagnostic skills , a great teacher, a stickler for punctuality, an academic, and a doctor who could repair medical equipment on his own.

“He was a wizard on computer operations and used to do statistical analysis himself despite there being a team to do it for research work. I remember him spending a whole day reading a manual of bedside cardiac monitors, which was procured for the first time in the department. He used to open the ABG machine (a machine to monitor the levels of various gasses like oxygen and carbon dioxide in a patient) and repair it himself,” said Dr GC Khilnani, chairman of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at PSRI hospital.

He narrated an incident of a 41-year-old asthma patient Pande was treating at AIIMS, who could not be weaned off a ventilator. “He listened to me on the way and as he reached the patient’s bedside, he just lifter her arm and gave a diagnosis. I was shocked,” said Dr Khilnani.

Dr Ashok Kumar, who studied under Dr Pande and currently heads the department of rheumatology at Fortis Vasant Kunj, said, “He was like an encyclopaedia. Sometimes when we asked questions, he could give the exact page number and the table that we should refer to. It was as if he remembered the whole book.”

Pande had in-depth knowledge of other specialities as well.

“When we used to have the grand rounds – where doctors from all the departments come together to discuss the cases – he was always the one with the maximum number of questions or ideas. And, people would listen to him because he could speak with authority about other specialities as well,” said Dr Anant Mohan, head of the department of pulmonology at AIIMS. He worked a senior resident under Dr Pande.

His team’s study on ‘Outdoor air pollution and emergency room visits at a hospital in Delhi’ in 1997-98 was referred to by the Supreme Court of India in its judgment banning diesel buses in Delhi in XXXX (YEAR — WAS IT 1998?). His research focused on high altitude physiology, lung mechanics in health and disease, exercise physiology, and interstitial lung disease (a group of diseases that affect the interstitium or the network of tissues that supports the air sacs).

When patients queued up outside his clinic, he would call them according to their serial number without consideration about whether it was a “VIP patient”. “He would always call in patients on a first come first serve basis. He was a passionate teacher and reached for his morning rounds even before his students,” said Dr Mohan.

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