Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore is well known name throughout the country and even abroad. Amongst the many people the institution can feel proud about is Mr. Sengodan not a doctor but an engineer.

Sengodan and C.M.C.H. have had a long association spanning almost 37 years first as a patient and then as an employee.

1959 was very unlucky year for young Sengodan. As a 23-year-old, brilliant, civil engineering graduate, just out of college and with a lot of dreams and aspirations he had just joined the Tamil Nadu Highways Departments a few months earlier. But soon his dream were shattered by a bus accident which rendered him a quadriplegic- he lost all sensation and was paralyzed below his neck. He lost his bladder and bowel control as well. He was admitted to C.M.C.H. Thus started the long association between the man and the institution.

Sengodan was a patient there for three long years. Intensive treatment did not improve his physical condition. A lesser man would have succumbed to depression. But not Sengodan. The initial depression over his devastating disability did not last long. He learnt to fight with a smile soon. Three long years slowly crawled by. During this period he learnt to move around in a wheelchair, to regulate his bladder and bowel and above all to live with his disability. On the third year an operation was performed on his right hand, which made it possible for him to hold a spoon and grip a pen. He learnt to write and to feed himself.

To avoid the boredom of his hospital room he started going out and visiting other patients. He started visiting the engineering department of the hospital and spent long hours there.

Around the time of his discharge a vacancy arose in the engineering department. Sengodan applied for it and got the job.

Many people were skeptical about a wheelchair engineer. Sengodan proved them wrong soon. Many new buildings started coming up, as per his plans and under his supervision. His disability did not deter him from personally supervising all construction and maintaince activities. Though the hot, dry Vellore climate made him extremely uncomfortable, it did not stop him from putting a full day's work either at his office or construction site, everyday. This has continued for the past 30 years.

Today, Sengodan is in-charge of the engineering department of CMCH and knows every nook and corner of the college and hospital. He has been instrumental in the expansion and modernization of the hospital. He is a much-respected person and his advice is sought often. He is a source of inspiration to all.

This brave fighter can be proud of many of his constructions, but the one he can never forget is the simply building of the Rehabilitation Centre for the physically disabled people.

Sengodan's sister Nallama and brother-in-law Muthusami who have been living with him all these years and looking after him require special mention here. CMCH, which provided him with a job in spite of his major disability, and has been appreciative of his work, must also be appreciated.