Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users
to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response
is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual
response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the
browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published
online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed.
Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles.
The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being
wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our
attention that a response spreads misinformation.
From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not
including references and author details. We will no longer post responses
that exceed this limit.
The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.
Thank you for the tribute to Keith Ball in The BMJ of 23 February
2008. He was the guru who guided my professional pathway.
Arriving in the UK in the mid 1950s, I encountered tough competition
in obtaining even interviews for junior hospital appointments. An excess
of post-War graduates were being given preference in appointments. Having
a foreign, Indian first name was a negative message. I even Europeanised my first name
from Krishnamurthi to Kris. In despair, and learning that Horace Joules,
Medical Director of Central Middlesex Hospital was a card-carrying member
of the Communist Party, I sought out a meeting with him. Afterall, it was
the Communist Party in South Africa where I had grown up that spear-headed
the freedom struggle. I was subsequently successful in obtaining an
appointment as House Physician to Horace Joules and Keith Ball, it was a
challenging job, I learnt a great deal and I met friends like John and
Felicity Edwards and Harold Lambert who were to become friends for life.
It was during my house job at Central Middlesex Hospital that I was
required to make presentations to John Goodwin, Cardiologist at
Hammersmith Hospital, who regularly took transfer of patients needing
heart valve surgery. I was fortunate in being called up for interview at
Hammersmith Hospital, I was appointed House Physician to John Goodwin. I
continued for the next couple of years at Hammersmith Hospital in the area
of cardiovascular medicine which formed the basis of my subsequent career
starting off as Lecturer in Medicine at Makerere University in Uganda.
Keith Ball had introduced me to his brother, Donald Ball, who had
worked in Uganda. I followed in Donald Ball's footsteps and for the next
ten years or so my area of clinical research was in endomyocardial
fibrosis. During my years in the UK I met a couple, Surendra and Krishna
Sahai. Surendra was attached to the Indian High Commission in London.
Krishna Sahai was asthmatic, I referred her to Keith Ball, and Keith and
Francesca Ball and the Sahais became firm friends, their friendship
lasting through the years. On his trips to Ladakh Keith Ball used to stay
with the Sahais in New Delhi.
Professor Krishna Somers
MB BCh (Rand) FRCP (Lond & Edin) FRACP FACC DCH
Perth 6000 Western Australia
Email: krishna.somers@health.wa.gov.au
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
25 April 2008
Krishna Somers
Consultant Physician/Cardiologist
Royal Perth Hospital, Ainslie House, 48 Murray Street, Perth , Western Australia 6000
A Little More on Keith Ball
Arriving in the UK in the mid 1950s, I encountered tough competition in obtaining even interviews for junior hospital appointments. An excess of post-War graduates were being given preference in appointments. Having a foreign, Indian first name was a negative message. I even Europeanised my first name from Krishnamurthi to Kris. In despair, and learning that Horace Joules, Medical Director of Central Middlesex Hospital was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, I sought out a meeting with him. Afterall, it was the Communist Party in South Africa where I had grown up that spear-headed the freedom struggle. I was subsequently successful in obtaining an appointment as House Physician to Horace Joules and Keith Ball, it was a challenging job, I learnt a great deal and I met friends like John and Felicity Edwards and Harold Lambert who were to become friends for life.
It was during my house job at Central Middlesex Hospital that I was required to make presentations to John Goodwin, Cardiologist at Hammersmith Hospital, who regularly took transfer of patients needing heart valve surgery. I was fortunate in being called up for interview at Hammersmith Hospital, I was appointed House Physician to John Goodwin. I continued for the next couple of years at Hammersmith Hospital in the area of cardiovascular medicine which formed the basis of my subsequent career starting off as Lecturer in Medicine at Makerere University in Uganda.
Keith Ball had introduced me to his brother, Donald Ball, who had worked in Uganda. I followed in Donald Ball's footsteps and for the next ten years or so my area of clinical research was in endomyocardial fibrosis. During my years in the UK I met a couple, Surendra and Krishna Sahai. Surendra was attached to the Indian High Commission in London. Krishna Sahai was asthmatic, I referred her to Keith Ball, and Keith and Francesca Ball and the Sahais became firm friends, their friendship lasting through the years. On his trips to Ladakh Keith Ball used to stay with the Sahais in New Delhi.
Professor Krishna Somers
MB BCh (Rand) FRCP (Lond & Edin) FRACP FACC DCH
Perth 6000 Western Australia
Email: krishna.somers@health.wa.gov.au
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests