The community is invited to come by 104th E. 30th on Friday, September 19 to celebrate the retirement of Dr. Laxmichand Kamnani, MD and Dr. Nirmala Kamnani, MD. This celebration is also an opportunity to show these two pillars of the community how much they are appreciated for their years of dedicated service, healing and compassion.
Originally hailing from India, Laxmichand and Nirmala made their way to the Texas Panhandle in 1983, but not before gracing other parts of the States in their pursuit to further their education in a crucial field that calls for unwavering focus and a passion for helping others.
Laxmichand began his medical journey at the University of Rajasthan/Sawai Man Singh Medical College, and while he was doing his post-graduation education, he was presented an opportunity to come to the States.
“I came from India in 1977,” he said. “At that time, there was a big need for doctors in this country. There was a ruling by President Ford that whoever had cleared the examination of ECFMG, which I had already done, they needed to be here by January 7, 1977. So I was already doing my post-graduation in India after medical school, which post-graduation there is known as MD, and medical school is known as MVBS. So I was doing post-graduation in internal medicine/cardiology. In the middle of that, we only had three days’ preparation-we had to leave everything and be here by midnight January 7, 1977. There were three doctors in one unit taking care of almost 120 patients, and we all three had graduated ECFMG. So we left on the 4th, got our credentials, and we arrived on a plane with 200 other doctors between 9 and 10 o’clock on the 7th. That was the beginning.”
Upon arrival, Laxmichand immediately applied for residency programs and was accepted into family medicine in Little Rock, AR. But with his impressive and extensive educational background in internal medicine and cardiology, Laxmichand knew he needed to put those skills and knowledge to use and went to work in internal medicine in New York, Nirmala joining shortly after.
A year after his initial arrival, both he and Nirmala would get married and essentially become the power couple they are known as today.
Both Laxmichand and Nirmala had attended the same medical school in India where Nirmala was working on her OBGYN credentials and Laxmichand was working in medicine.
“She was the top of the class and I was in the middle,” Laxmichand smiled.
After spending three years in New York City, Laxmichand and Nirmala would move to Chicago for two years where Laxmichand worked in Cardiology Fellowship, before finally moving to Pampa in 1983 and setting up his own practice in cardiology. Nirmala would extend her studies into internal medicine and obtain her credentials in 1987, joining Laxmichand’s practice in 1990.
During their time here, Laxmichand and Nirmala would start their own family, having two sons who are just as distinguished as their parents, one an engineer in Houston and the other a doctor in Austin. And it is with their family they plan to spend their retirement.
When reflecting on their years of service and care, they don’t view it as an accomplishment for themselves specifically, but as more of a purpose they were meant to fulfill and ultimately did.
“Pillars become history like in old Rome and Greece,” Laxmichand said. “Between the two of us, we have given 77 years of medical care to the Texas panhandle. A heart beats 100,000 times a day, so in one year, that’s 3.65 million beats. You combine the both of us and it’s 4.17 billion beats in Pampa.”
“One of my teachers in high school used to always tell us the story about Archimedes, a Greek scientist who found the specific density concept based on how the big floating ships don’t sink in water. So he ran through the streets in Athens shouting, ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ He found something-he had a eureka moment. So my physics teacher said, ‘In your life, if you keep searching and looking for it, and if you have the passion, you will find that eureka moment, and you will tell yourself, Eureka! Eureka!’ Then my other teacher used to say, ‘nobody twists your arm to do what you’re doing, you’re twisting your own arm so you can’t blame anyone else.’
“For 43 years in my practice, I have taken care of sick patients-on call, day and night with no one else covering me. Why? Because of my commitment. Nobody twisted my arm to become what I am. I found my eureka moment and I twisted my own arm.”
“We both had the fascination of the human body, and now looking back, he does things now that I would have never imagined,” Nirmala said. “I’ve learned a lot just by association and attending cardiology and it never stops amazing us.”
“Our patients and our staff have been wonderful, and I admire our patients who have lived long lives and how positive they are, they have taught us a lot. It’s been an inspiring experience.”
“I always say if I was going to be reborn seven times, I would do cardiology,” Laxmichand laughed. “The passion has to be there. But the most important thing you need to have other than passion in the medical field is compassion.”
Pampa will certainly miss these two gems, but we are thankful for the impact they have made on this community that can only be appropriately measured by the beats of a heart, and we wish them a long and happy retirement.
