Obituary: Sr Mary Ann John. Played a key role in growth of St Isabel’s Hospital

Rev. Sr Mary Ann John passed away on 25th September.  She was the administrator of St isabel’s Hospital and had played a key role here.

An extremely competent and experienced nurse, she went on to become the
Mother Superior and then Administrator of St Isabel’s Hospital in the 90’s with one
more stint in the early 2000s .

She was the driving force behind making St Isabel’s a multi- speciality hospital. State of the art IMCU and ICCU were launched here and so were departments for Trauma Care and Emergency Services.

She would do the rounds in every ward and being an excellent nurse would address lapses by the staff and in her mix of Malyalam and Tamil, advise the staff. She would talk to patients and their attenders too.

Problems brought to her notice were dealt with immediately. She was extremely practical and was willing to ask for help from experts to solve particularly tricky issues.

She was later posted in the satellite centre of St Isabel’s Hospital in Thoraipakkam
where she ran a tight ship. Doctors from St Isabel’s would go there on rotation and she would make sure they were fed with a sumptuous meal before they started work.

In the decades gone by, Thoraipakkam was not a safe place and the
nuns posted there, the duty doctors had many scary experiences.

Sr. Mary would bundle patients who needed SOS treatment into the jeep to bring them
to St Isabel’s in Luz for urgent specialised care . The vandalism of the hospital and the
abuses and threats stopped when residents realised the nun’s goodness.

The eldest of 12 children, she and another 2 siblings became nuns.

Sr. Mary was brought to St Isabel’s recently from the House in Kerala where she was serving in
as she was unwell.

– Tribute by Dr Manjushree Naik, senior consultant plastic and cosmetic surgeon.