HINDUSTAN TIMES!

Students in a tizzy over breast 'teaching'!

Alka Rastogi

Lucknow, June 15, 2005


Female students at the King George's Medical University in Lucknow are finding it difficult to stay abreast of their lessons after an Assistant Professor created a scandal by asking them to drop their aprons.

While Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Ram Kant insists all the professor wanted to do was teach, the girls are furious that they were asked to become models for demonstrating 'percussion'.

Students of M.Sc. nutrition class of a famous girls' college doing their internship in the medical university were allegedly asked by the Assistant Professor to remove their aprons during a lecture demonstration. Although some of the girls complied, others refused as they found the request highly objectionable. They walked out of the room in anger and later reported the matter to university authorities. In their complaint the girls accused the professor of trying to make sexual advances using the demonstration as an excuse.

Professor Rama Kant who has been asked to probe the incident, flatly denies the charge. There was no sexual harassment involved and the faculty member was merely displaying 'percussion technique' for diagnosing empyma, Rama Kant claims.

According to him, percussion is a medical practice in which the infected part of the patient's body is hit with fingers while pressing it with the other hand to diagnose puss formation. Rama Kant believes the confusion happened because the girls were not from a medical background and therefore misinterpreted their teacher's actions. He also blames jealous members of the staff for needlessly blowing the incident out of proportion.

However few are willing to buy this argument. Not only has it failed to satisfy the girls, even some staff members of the University are questioning the teaching methodology. They say there was no need to teach percussion technique to students of M.Sc Nutrition course since all they have to know is how to prescribe a suitable diet for patients suffering from various ailments.

They also point out a technical snag in the explanation offered by Professor Rama Kant. According to them empyma puss is deposited in the pleural cavity falling between chest and lung valves. Percussion in this case would involve hitting the chest and the patient's back, not their breasts.

Interestingly, the Chief Medical Superintendent admits he has so far received only oral complaints about the matter. The girls, it seems, are unwilling to give anything in writing for fear they will be asked to leave the course by their parents.

Interesting read. I'm surprised why all the girls didn't object to this. Why would nutritionists need to check for presence of empyma puss? Isn't that the job of a qualified doctor/gynaecologist?

Luckily the doctor stopped short of conducting a gynaecological examination. He would have given an explanation for that too.