Restoration work at Pune’s Sassoon hospital: Memorial of Mahatma Gandhi’s appendicitis surgery to get makeover

B J Medical College archives indicate that a British surgeon, Col Maddock, operated on Mahatma Gandhi’s inflamed appendix on Jan 12, 1924. Gandhi was at Yerawada jail in Pune, serving a six-year sentence in a sedition case from 1922. He was in pain and brought from the prison to the David Sassoon hospital building.

During the operation, the light bulb went off. The appendectomy was finished with a hurricane lamp providing light. The restoration architects will capture this historical moment at the operation theatre as they commence this ambitious project, estimated at Rs 23 crore.

David Sassoon building

Archana Deshmukh Kulkarni, a conservation architect from Nasadeeya Architecture and Conservation, appointed by the Public Works Department, Government of Maharashtra, for the restoration project, told The Indian Express that these are two very unique and different buildings on the same campus. “One is the David Sassoon building (1867), which is a typical early English Gothic style with high walls and sloping roof, while the Jacob Sassoon building (1905-06) is more of the later Victorian Gothic style with elaborately panelled front doors, pointed arches and towers.”

The work began in November last year. For the heritage restoration architects, this was a profoundly challenging work that started with historical studies, finding old maps and plans, and removing unnecessary additions and alterations made at these buildings over the years.

For instance, mezzanine floors were added at the David Sassoon building, and these would be removed so that the space could be used appropriately for a library and reading hall. The operation theatre where Gandhi went under the knife is already a memorial and it is set to get a makeover within the library building.

The work began in November last year. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)

“We are keen to bring back these buildings to their original glory,” said Kulkarni and her teammates Devyani Kumavat and Pratiksha Dalvi are sparing no effort to use the same material – stone and bricks and utilising the same traditional lime-mortar-sand mix to restore these heritage buildings.

“It is challenging as this requires skilled labourers, and it will be at least a year and a half till the buildings are fully restored,” Kulkarni said.

The government-run 1,100-bed Sassoon General Hospital is one of the oldest ones in the country. In the 1860s, a Jewish philanthropist David Sassoon from Mumbai, made a generous donation to construct the hospital. Initially, the hospital could accommodate 144 patients, but due to the increasing patient load, David Sassoon’s nephew built another building known as the Jacob Sassoon hospital building. According to the BJMC archive, both were magnificent buildings and architectural marvels, with the clock tower of the David Sassoon Hospital being a landmark in Pune.

The BJMC authorities said that approximately Rs 14.7 crore will be spent on the restoration work of the David Sassoon Hospital building, while Rs 9 crore will be spent on the Jacob Sassoon building.

The David Sassoon Hospital building earlier had tuberculosis, psychiatry and ophthalmology wards, while the burns and ENT wards were located at the Jacob Sassoon building.

Dr Sanjiv Thakur, Dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, told The Indian Express that this was a massive restoration project and there are plans to set up a state-of-the-art library apart from accommodating surgery, gynaecology, and medicine departments at the David Sassoon building.

He said the plastic surgery and burns ward had been planned at the Jacob Sassoon building and acknowledged the efforts taken by S Chockalingam, the then administrator at Sassoon General Hospital, towards this initiative.

Around 80 and 60 in-patient beds of ophthalmology and ENT departments have been shifted to the 11-storeyed building, while 60 in-patient beds of the psychiatry department have been relocated to another facility that houses the paediatric department.