Kaleidoscope of a Stroke Survivor

When life is overshadowed by dark clouds of crisis, one can realize that ‘things could have been worse’, by being thankful for silver linings.Dr. George Jacob was born in Quilon, now, Kollam, in Kerala, India on October 6th, 1965. He is the oldest of four children born to his parents, the late Mr. E.V. Jacob, a seafood exporter and Mrs. Elizabeth Jacob, who was a lecturer in Zoology at St. Teresa’s College, Cochin, at that time. He passed MBBS from Medical College, Kottayam, Kerala, India in 1990, and later M.S (General Surgery) from the same college in 1996. He then started his career as a surgeon in a busy Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, which functioned in three major hospitals in the private sector in Cochin. Ten years later, at 39, just as he was beginning to realize his passion as a surgeon, he su¬ ered a massive stroke that paralyzed the left side, wreaking his surgical career in the process. This ‘bolt from the blue’, necessitated change of vocation from that of a surgeon to that of an Intensivist in the Surgical ICU, where he works as Senior Specialist. Having lost the sense of direction in life, at least momentarily, he took to writing. He found a new avenue to express himself, through the unfamiliar world of letters, exchanging his scalpel for the pen, in the process. His new-found passion had him contribute in various sections of the national daily, the New Indian Express.