Dr Mayilvahanan Natarajan joined the Orthopaedic Department as Tutor in 1981 and served as an Asst. Prof. of Orthopaedics till 2001. In 2001 he became the Additional Professor and subsequently in March 2005 took over as the Head of Department. He then upgraded the Orthopaedic Department into Institute of Orthopaedic and Traumatology in 2009. He also became the 1st Director of the Institute. His contributions to the Orthopaedic Department Govt. General Hospital are as follows:

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• Increase in Bed Strength from 139 to 308 beds: The Twin Tower inauguration at Government General Hospital with about 1000 beds on 1st July 2005 was a Red Letter Day in the History of this Department. The Government was convinced about the high quality of Orthopaedic services being rendered by the Department and the growing census of orthopaedic patients. They sanctioned an additional 169 beds to the then existing bed strength of 131 (G.O. No. 1555 dt. 25-09-85), and 8 beds (Paraplegia Project G.O. 1406 dt. 22-7-87) to make a total of 308 beds – making it the largest Orthopaedic Department in a Public Hospital in the whole of India.

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• Bone Bank: The Bone Bank was established in 1st July 2005, and was the first such facility in a Government Hospital. (G.O. (Ms) No. 65 dt. 28-3-03) Till date this vital cog in Limb Salvage Surgery has benefitted the lives of many Bone Tumour patients.

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• Spinal Injury Unit: Our Department of Orthopaedics has always been a centre for the treatment of Spinal Injuries. The PL 480 Paraplegia Project (US aided) on completion was absorbed into the Department as the Spinal Injury Unit in 1987. In order to give due importance to the growth of sub-specialities in Orthopaedics in the future, a proposals was submitted to the Government to upgrade the existing Spinal Injury Unit into a separate Spinal Surgery Unit within the Orthopaedic Department. The Government approved this proposals as per G.O.(Ms) No. 255 dt. 17-10-06, H & FW Dept. and 2 new Spinal Surgery Units were created in Nov. 2006. Two posts of Readers in Spinal Surgery have been created as per G.O. (D) No. 762 dt. 25-6-07 and G.O. (D) No.1187 dt. 18-9-07.

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• Golden Day Trauma Care: As an extension of the Golden Hour concept, The Golden Day Trauma Care Programme was started in July 2008. This initiative provides definitive orthopaedic surgical care for the patients admitted with closed fractures within 24 hours, as is being done in private and corporate hospitals.

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• Research: The Tamilnadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University has acknowledged the Department as a centre for conducting research leading to the award of the Ph.D. degree (V. C. Proc. No. AC-1 (1) 34609/2007 dt. 4-8-08). In another feather in the cap, the Department has also won approval as a centre for conducting path breaking research in Autologous Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Damage.

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• Ortho Skills Lab: A state of the art Ortho Skills Lab has been established in February 2009. This is the product of the first ever MOU signing under the Public Private Partnership between the Department of Orthopaedics and Depuy Johnson & Johnson Ltd (Govt. Lt. No. 34206 / E1/ 2008 dt. 19-8-08). This lab provides all facilities to hone the skills of postgraduates and practicing junior Orthopaedic Surgeons alike.

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• Implant Bank: An Implant Bank (G.O. (Ms) No.100 dt. 18-3-09 H&FW Dept) has been established in order to supplement the efforts of the Government and to provide a channel for philanthropic contributions towards the procurement of implants. This will help us to provide services to aid timely recovery of trauma patients.

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• Modern Infrastructure Facilities: Emergency Orthopaedic care is extended round the clock, with Intensive Trauma Care facilities and Trauma theatres. Well equipped general male and female wards, paediatric, septic, spinal injury and post operative wards enabled us to deliver our motto – ‘We Care’. State-of-the-art Operation Theatres with laminar air flow are equipped to perform the latest surgeries such as arthroplasties, trauma, spinal and tumour surgeries. The sanctioning of the State Illness Fund and the Government Insurance scheme for life saving treatment made it possible to perform expensive high tech surgeries for the common man, free of cost.

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• Disaster Management Guidelines: I was nominated as a Core Group Member, Medical Preparedness and Mass Casualities Management Program of the National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India. I was involved in the preparation of the Disaster Management Guidelines by the Core Group. The National Disaster Management Guidelines Manual was released by the Union Health Minister on 14-7-07 at New Delhi, for implementation by the various States.