When 65,000 doses of measles vaccines arrived, the city had no cold storage facility. S.L. Chitale, a well-known architect, approached H.V. Hande, the then State Health Minister and got approval to store the vaccine at Spencer Plaza. This effort paved the way for the polio immunisation plan, remembered J.B. Kamdar, past district governor of the Rotary Club of Madras, in his tribute to the man who created the Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital.
Mr. Kamdar was speaking at the commissioning of the renovated auditorium at the hospital here on Sunday.
It has been named after S.L. Chitale. “Mr. Chitale was the founder trustee of the hospital and was associated with every work in the hospital. Whatever work he did was done to perfection,” said S. Chandramohan, hospital chief executive officer.
“N. Sankar, chairman of the Sanmar group, also one of the founder members of the hospital, wanted the auditorium named after Mr. Chitale. The board, with A.C. Muthiah as chairman of the hospital, approved the move,” he said.
Mr. Chitale was instrumental in getting a grant of $7,50,000 from Rotary Club of Whitby, Canada, to set up the institution, office-bearers of the Rotary Club of Madras recalled. “It is [naming the auditorium] a fitting tribute to his legacy as so many thousands of children are getting high quality medical care that goes back to this one man. It was his idea, he built it,” said Bala Ramachandran, head of the paediatric intensive care unit.
Mr. Muthiah, who commissioned the renovated auditorium, urged the Rotary Club to give more funds to support the hospital. Mohan Raman, president of the club, assured the members that the request would be considered.
