OBITUARY - PROF. MEENA ANGAMUTHU KANIKANNAN

   

 Dr.Angamuthu Kanikannan Meena was born on 01-01-1962 to Angamuthu and Andal  Kanikannan, in a Tamil speaking family, settled in Hyderabad over several years. She went to Holy Family High School where she showed good leadership qualities at a young age and passed out as the school Head Girl. She did her MBBS and MD from Gandhi Medical College in year 1985 and 1989 respectively.  She was the first lady to do  residency in Neurology from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. She continued to dedicate her services to NIMS as faculty for the past 26 years beginning her career as Assistant Professor in 1994 to the current position as Senior Professor of Neurology and  Associate Dean.

Dr Meena was a clinician par excellence, great teacher and a thorough academician. She had an amazing way of clinical skills which involved an informal history taking to a precise clinical examination. Moreover, she had a sixth sense to diagnose and treat complex cases. Her charismatic personality used to attract all the students and colleagues not only to share their personal problems, also for the diagnosis of rare, puzzling and challenging cases. 

Apart from being a great clinician, she was extremely good in electrophysiology that helped her to solve many difficult neuromuscular cases. Neurological disease were always thought to be untreatable, but Dr Meena changed the concept as she  loved treating patients aggressively, especially those with neuroimmunological disorders. Another area of interest was critical care neurology and she designed the Neuro ICU of Nizam’s Institute in the year 2000 to suit aggressive treatment of acute neurological illnesses. She believed that Neurologists need to be actively involved in the management of Neuro ICU and ensured that the treatment given at Nizam’s Institute followed the latest guidelines.  She is well known for treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis, CIDP, neuromyelitis optica and other complex neuromuscular cases.

 Dr Meena would go to any extent to ensure treatment of her patients, more so if they were poor and non affordable.  She was dedicated, systematic in her approach and simply loved neurology. 

She had a great thirst for research. She has more than 100 publications in national and international journals.  She is well known for her work on low volume plasma exchange in treatment of GB syndrome. She was the first to start use of MR Neurography for diagnosis of different neuropathies in this part of country.   She authored 22 chapters and review articles and had several award papers and posters.

 She was the founding member and treasurer of Nerve and Muscle Society and also Organizing secretary of NERVECON in 2010, 2014 and 2018. She held several official posts - was adviser of MS Society of Hyderabad, treasurer for Society of  Mitochondrial Research and Medicine, external advisory board member for PhD committee in NIMHANS.

She was a great teacher, imparting her gifted and unique neurological skills to her ever loving students.  She was disciplined, punctual and set impressive standards where every student could look up to her as a role model.  She was like a concerned family member and her students, friends and patients could bank on her even for their bothering personal issues and seek a reasonable solution.

She had a magnetic personality, ever buoyant and full of energy.  Her fervor to work was amazing.  To be precise, she was a compassionate and astute clinician, an exemplary teacher, guide and mentor to generations of neurologists.  Her loss is irreplaceable for all her patients she served, students, family members and friends.

Rest in peace.