Lydia - a life well lived, taken away too soon

We are sorry to inform you of the passing away of Dr. Lydia John (MBBS Batch of 1988) on 28 December 2022.

Born 09/12/1970 at Kotagiri, Dr. Lydia shared her birthday with at least one other strong, intelligent, beautiful, brave, Godly, compassionate, and overall exemplary woman we all know - Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder. However, the demure, quietly confident woman with the sweetest smile and sparkles in her eyes that remained till she closed them forever this morning will remain the Dr. Lydia we all know and love.

Lydia’s strength was based on the strong foundations of her close relationship with God and His word. Dr. Lydia stood for and upheld justice and excellence, speaking up for what was right and defending her right to do so. The girl who came to Vellore in 1988 as the epitome of simplicity and innocence had attributes that belied a strength that comes from a steadfast faith in God and a commitment to serving Him through medicine. During their post-graduate training period, Dr. Lydia John had committed to marry Dr. Koshy George, who found a friend in his quiet, spiritual, naïve, loyal, but fiercely independent MBBS classmate and foster sister, leading to their marriage in 1999.

Her (their) legacy of being exemplary Christian students, physicians, teachers, and leaders spans from the North to South and Western to Eastern-most corners of the Nation. Apart from stints in CMC Vellore for post-graduate training, they have faithfully served in the mission hospitals of EHA and, more recently, Kotagiri Medical Fellowship.

Drs. Koshy and Lydia have coached and mentored many young doctors and nurses everywhere they worked. The “open house” at their home each week, both in Herbertpur and Tezpur, offered a warm dinner and an empathetic listening ear. People came to Dr. Koshy and Dr. Lydia, trusting them with their deepest worries and concerns, confident of a welcoming heart and good cheer from Dr. Koshy. Still, many have said they came knowing that talking things through with Dr. Lydia would help them make the right decisions.

Lydia’s honesty and sense of fairness set benchmarks for quality in clinical care for colleagues in her clinical team and across other institutions and the EHA organisation. Dr. Lydia is an excellent physician who has always prioritized her patients, setting an example emulated by her clinical team of doctors and nurses to strive for excellence in patient care. She always invested substantive time with her patient beyond the clinical need to be a doctor who prays with her patients.

Dr. Lydia, who trained in Internal medicine (CMC, Vellore), recognized the high burden of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in the community served by Herbertpur Christian Hospital and formalized treatment plans for tuberculosis. This work was used to develop hospital, district, and regional guidelines for TB management. In Tezpur, she designed home-based care for stroke patients and the mobile stroke unit (second in the country) through her resolve to deliver affordable, state-of-the-art place-based medical care in very low-resource settings. She worked to secure collaborative partnerships with various service providers and funders to operationalize the unit, which has been on the road to saving lives and spreading hope since February 2020. She also developed antibiotic protocols to address the significant infectious disease pathology patients attending the hospital.

As the family grew, it was necessary to make quality time for their young children and elderly parents. Almost seamlessly, the compassionate and wise Dr. Lydia sacrificed her career progression to make room to nurture their young family. While Dr. Koshy focused on building the healthcare organization, Dr. Lydia led the family and community in spiritual growth and development, establishing the social support systems that enabled the organization to deliver its healthcare mandate. A resolute believer in human rights and women’s empowerment, she lent her voice to committees and platforms that enforce measures to prevent and address sexual harassment and realize women’s rights in the workplace. In recognition of their service, Drs. Lydia and Koshy were awarded the Christian Medical College motto award in 2015.

Serving with a giving spirit, despite the many health struggles they encountered for themselves, and their children, Drs. Lydia and Koshy put others, especially the patients under their care, ahead of themselves. This was again demonstrated when she continued to work at KMF through the trying times of the COVID Pandemic while herself manifesting symptomatology that had the neurologists flummoxed. Even after receiving the diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), she continued to see patients for as long as she was physically able to. Despite limitations in mobility and communication functions, she resolutely continued her ministry as a physician through remote consultation and being available for clinical advice to help with patient care.

Dr. Lydia touched the lives of everyone she met, and through them, the ripples have spread far and wide, leaving a legacy of memorable faith, steadfastness, and good grace. She leaves behind a grieving family, extended family, and community as she reached the end of her journey on earth this morning in Kotagiri, where it began 52 years ago.