'5 doctor', who served people for 45 yrs, dead

Chennai: Dr V Thiruvengadam, famous as the 'Rs 5 doctor' in Chennai's Vyasarpadi, died of cardiac arrest at the Southern Railway Hospital on Saturday. He was 70 and is survived by his wife T Saraswathi, daughter T Preethi and son T Dipak, reports A Selvaraj.
Confirming that he didn't have Covid-19, Preethi, a doctor herself, said he had been admitted to the hospital on August 13 after complaining of chest pain. "We were arranging for his discharge today when he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and breathed his last at 12.05pm."
S Boobalan, the doctor's assistant for 25 years, said he joined as a juvenile and started distributing tokens to patients at the clinic. Boobalan said, "He charged Rs 5 per patient when I joined. It was Rs 2 per patient when he started the clinic 45 years ago." Every day, more than 150 people came to consult Dr Thiruvengadam who often gave out free medicines and even gave some of them money.