Dr. George Jacob
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.
He married Dr. Mallie Abraham, his classmate and sweetheart,
who he courted during an ‘eventful’ MBBS course. She is Consultant in the
Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care in the same hospital where he works.
The couple has two daughters, Anju, an engineering student and Aleena, doing
her high school. He, as family, lives with his mother in Cochin. ‘A
Kaleidoscope of a stroke survivor’ is his first major publication, through
which he tries to drive home to those passing through crisis, that ‘things
could have been worse.’, were it not for the silver linings, that would
invariably be present.