Dr Michelle Viegas recounts warm memories of Goa’s most loved doctor, Dr Francisco Colaco. And his pioneering contributions to Echocardiology

I HAVE known Dr Francisco Colaco since my childhood as he is a close friend of my father Rafael Viegas. His older daughter Elaine Caloco and I are contemporaries of the same age and friends, our families lived close by to the Colacos during my schooling years in Margao.
As a child growing up I always remember how well-respected Dr Colaco is, I remember his nursing home attached to his residence on the ground floor always being full of patients. He always comes across as quiet, always soft-spoken and passionate about his work.
Dr Francisco Colaco pioneered and started doing echocardiography in Goa in 1980, after he trained in the USA — when echocardiography was not much available in Goa. He diagnosed complex heart diseases in newborns and referred them to the best out-of-state medical centers for those early years there were no advanced centers for treating the heart’s many problems.

ECHOCARDIOGRAPHER
THANKS to his excellent skills in echocardiography many newborns were diagnosed and operated in time and till today continue to live fruitful lives in adulthood. Children with complex birth defects of the heart, if not diagnosed and operated in time, reach a stage where they can no longer be operated — as the lung pressures rise too high to be safe to operate. Sometimes if the blood supply to the lungs is reduced these little patients can just suddenly die — if the channels supplying blood close down.
So, having a doctor who can diagnose complex conditions of the heart and refer them in time…this saved a lot of Goan newborns and young children.
Even today when I see some of his patients who are well into their 2nd and 3rd decade, I often marvel at how much effort it would have taken him to diagnose and then streamline the process of further management of these patients, so that they get shifted to other heart centers at the right time for surgery or intervention required. This especially at a time where not much by way of facilities were available in Goa. He is truly the pioneer of Echocardiography and Pediatric Cardiology in Goa.
Dr Colaco treated a lot of adult patients too who presented with heart attack — as in the old days, cardiology was not a separate speciality and angiography, followed by angioplasty if indicated, was not available. His training in cardiology and echocardiography skills made him best suitable to manage cardiac patients.

LOVE FOR MUSIC
BESIDES being an excellent clinician and cardiologist Dr Colaco also has a great love for music and singing is his passion. It is simply wonderful to listen to him sing in Portuguese, Konkani and English and sometimes together with his beloved wife Fernanda.
Needless to say his love for Goa and its people is deep-rooted and he has been very active whenever it comes to saving Goa for Goans and in preserving its heritage.
The sudden loss of his only son Melwyn, who was doing his MD in Internal Medicine, was a very difficult time for him and I know it is impossible for any parent to really overcome such a loss. But despite this he found the courage to start his practice again despite all that weighed him down emotionally.
HIS passion for the field of medicine and his polite demeanor is a shining example for all of us doctors to emulate. Today, as he completes 45 years of practice in cardiology and echocardiography, I wish Dr Francisco Colaco and his family good health and courage and for him to continue to do the excellent work he has done over the years. May God bless him for the years of excellent service he has rendered to the state of Goa and its patients.