Vrushali: Welcome to Vsync at ASPA, official channel of the Asian Society of Anesthesiology. Today is little a little reflective. We not just speaking a teacher, but to a that quietly has many others. ⁓ I am
Vibhavari: Hello, and I'm Vibha. I'm good. Is it hot in Mumbai?
Vrushali: are you today? Yes.
Vibhavari: Yeah, pretty hot in Hyderabad as well. But today we are here to listen to a story that reminds us that brilliance does not always begin with confidence. Sometimes it begins a doubt and can evolve into something extraordinary. Isn't it, Rishali?
Vrushali: too. true. Well said, Vibha. We honored to welcome Illuminada Camagay with journey that resilience, quiet strength, a deep commitment care. Her is not just about medicine, but courage, purpose, and the power of growing oneself. Madam, is ⁓ a privilege to have you with us today. Could you please ⁓ hello to our audience today?
Iluminada Camagay: Hello everyone in the ASPA world and beyond. It is my privilege to share with you my thoughts tonight. Thank you for this opportunity.
Vibhavari: so much Dr. for joining us here today. We are really looking forward to this conversation, to learning from your journey and your experiences.
Iluminada Camagay: I hope so.
Vrushali: Yes, as said, your journey with hesitation. You have described as slow learner and you entered medicine against will. How that shape the doctor and teacher became? Please tell us.
Iluminada Camagay: Well, let me tell you first, my mother, her parents were uneducated illiterate farmers. but she wanted to be a doctor, but they couldn't afford it at that time. So my father, who fought in the Second World War, was given a benefit, educational benefits. So my mother said, Why don't you avail of those benefits and be a doctor? Well, actually, I just wanted to work in a bookstore. I told myself when I finish and take all the exams, I'm still going to work in a bookstore. When I passed all the requisite examinations, I thought everything would be such a waste. So I took a look at anesthesia and I thought after the anesthetics delivered, I could go home and do what I wished. In my time, the in the top of my class specialized in internal medicine. Those who went to anesthesia were the dregs. Actually, in the Philippine General Hospital, those who were in anesthesia were not from the university. They were from other schools. And the anesthesia was then considered a technique. It wasn't a specialty. But I had an opportunity. I did not figure out that my friendship with Merle de la Cruz-Odi, I hope you met her. She is of my ⁓ best friends. So I was in my internship, she was a resident in anesthesia, and I would see her go to the library going over Goodman Gilman. This is the pharmacology textbook and ⁓ physics know, Merle is a very bright person, so I figured there must be something to it. So eventually I said, maybe if I go to anesthesia.
Vibhavari: I remember.
Iluminada Camagay: because they would only accept the top of the class in internal medicine, which I wanted. Maybe I will be accepted. Besides, figured out next to internal medicine, it's anesthesia, which could bring together or weave into the fabric of health care, basic sciences and clinical sciences. I think even more than internal medicine. So I into it. And that was how I got reigned into anesthesia.
Vibhavari: Thank you for the lovely story. wanted to translate this experience for of the young doctors who today might struggle with self-doubt and may that they are just not enough. So what would you want to say to them?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, to this point, I am still the insecure person I have been as a child. I'm extremely insecure. First of all, know, the insecurity has never left me. When I was a child, I was very dark. And in a Spanish-American colonial society which prized fair skin, I was no beauty. I was never tough in school. My mother told me I was brutally frank. Nobody asked me to marry him until I was 45 years old. Can you imagine that? And this particular insecurity, which has not left me to this day, has made me someone who is always trying, finding out, studying. I'm always trying to find out how do we things clear, all right? Can solutions be deprived out of this clarity? And I think this has evolved into the kind of person that I am as a teacher. And I believe that this insecurity has turned over the years a strength.
Vrushali: Mm-hmm.
Iluminada Camagay: You know, one is never enough in this world. Otherwise, we would be God.
Vibhavari: So true. Thank you.
Vrushali: Yes, was so and it so soothing to hear that somebody at this level can say that, I used to insecure. ⁓ And what a whoever thought you were not beautiful. I'm not too sure. mean, they're standard. ⁓
Iluminada Camagay: I'm still, I still am.
Vibhavari: She's so beautiful even at this age. Wow.
Vrushali: Absolutely and you know what I recall love for books ⁓ a bookstore. You had taken me after the in Philippine. I was a nobody. Nobody knew me. I didn't know anybody much. was just loitering around and you said, hey, come here. What are you doing all alone? Let me take away. I wanted buy books for my kids. She actually drove me. Then we sat by the street to listen to jazz music. I can't forget evening you offered to me, madam, at that time. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the person that you are.
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah.
Vrushali: Thank you.
Iluminada Camagay: Thank you. think it comes out of the way we were brought up. You my mother was a school teacher and she'd always say, you have to live the golden rule. you know, would even take strangers she meets in a hotel lobby who have no place to go home to because they've finished all their money. because she said that when my children are in a foreign land, they are also going to be like this. So take care of them. That was what she inculcated in us.
Vrushali: Thank you so much. So when did anesthesia stop being just a career to you and when it become a calling?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, it was first, let me give you a background. In the Philippines, when we finish anesthesia training, we go into private practice and that's where the money is. And I did not take that pathway. I decided go to Scandinavia and my trip there, was an eye-opener. in that kind of an atmosphere or that environment, what was more important was to practice academic anesthesia rather than a private practice.
Vibhavari: Sure, sure, thank you. Based on what we spoke earlier about, know, your early years in life, in training that you spent in Scandinavia, you mentioned that those transformative years for you. What I wanted to ask you was, what really with you from that time? And how did shape when you later...
Iluminada Camagay: Yes.
Vibhavari: worked in pediatric anesthesia.
Iluminada Camagay: few things. are the experiences. At time I was training for anesthesia. Scandinavia was the mecca at that time. these things have stayed with me to this day are first, the refreshing honesty. I remember asking Olie Berner, the developer of the Berner valve, a physics related question. I was shocked when he without hesitation said, I don't know. Imagine the Bernal valve himself saying, I don't know, So this honesty in Scandinavia is in all aspects of their life. So this is what I imbibe. The other thing is the egalitarianism, the basic equality. And so this has been my sense of social justice, conscience, and egalitarianism I found Scandinavia. Let give you an example. The heads of departments took public transport. They carried their lunch in their briefcases. The heads took coffee with, converse, argued, shared the same space. as the lowest member of the totem pole in the healthcare system. The other thing that has stayed with me is the opportunities that are offered in equal measure to everybody. and which I sustained with me, I offer whatever I could offer to everybody. And then a very important thing I imbibe is the humility and the low-key demeanor, even the highest presented in all aspects of their life. And then a very, very thing for me is that the Scandinavians found joy in simple, basic things. Simple joys, not the big bang. And yet the beauty of Scandinavian design, elegance in their glass architecture and food made it all worth it, despite the isolation of being in a foreign country. And lastly, that's Success in anesthesia lies in its academic practice. That's why I told you I went into academic practice. Those are what I found in that sojourn, which is a transfiguration.
Vrushali: wonder they're the happiest country in the world today and have the Abora as well. Wonderful. for sharing that. You work with mentors, as you just said, and also ⁓ strong training What of your passion for teaching, may I ask?
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah. Yes. Oh, well, when I came back from Scandinavia, I was reigned in to be faculty of the center. The director of the center at that time was Professor Quintin Gomez, was also the father of anesthesia in the Philippines. There were three of us who were working with him. Dr. Merle Odi. Dr. Lydia Agay and myself. So we were called Quintin's Angels. I have mentioned Dr. Odi as my earliest mentor and I have endeavored to model myself after her. So we concentrated on teaching and the fellows because we thought we needed to teach those lone anesthesiologists in an isolated far-flung Pacific island, So we had it in us to give them everything they could use when they were all by themselves, you know. And this very close companionship with the two other angels and to Professor Gomez. been chiseled into my academic life. For example, Professor Gomez wrote beautifully. He was the president of the World Federation of Anesthesiologists. he would try to do something with machine and let you know what's happened, those tricks. And then he would say, if you don't think fast, the patient will get ahead of you. another where I had some form of mentorship was during the World Congress of Anesthesiologists in 1984 here in Manila. I was suddenly called to be on the stage with the panel on pediatric anesthesia and I was on the stage there with Fred Berry, Moyers, the one from Australia, Kester Brown. I was less than 40 years And then when I was on the stage, I suddenly saw Dr. Jackson reach out the door. He had and I was put in his place. Can you imagine that? So those are the mentorships that I got.
Vibhavari: Thank
Vrushali: Good day. Yeah.
Vibhavari: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing so many stories. I really like the being called as Stinton's angels. ⁓ was lovely. Exactly. Right. Some more stories that I've heard about you is how you helped evolve the surgeon anesthesiologist relationship into a true team. ⁓ And would want to,
Iluminada Camagay: Yes, from Charlie's Angels.
Vrushali: difficulties.
Vibhavari: to ask is what principles guided you, especially in complex pediatric cases? How did being a true team help in there?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, I think it's something of a fluke because when I came back from Scandinavia, old pediatric surgeons were trained in the US. My generation, one came back from Liverpool working with Sir Jackson Reese. Then the other pediatric surgeon was a female who trained in Australia, which is still under the British system. And there, is a measure equality among others. So these two pediatric surgeons I worked with, made it very easy because and then there was another one and female neurosurgeon who trained in Israel and was almost a professor in Switzerland. We all worked together. You we were very down to earth. We knew that we needed to know so many things. So whenever a difficult case would come our way we would come together and talk and let's say what is the most that we know about this patient? else do we need to know? And how are we going to come about resolving the problem that this patient poses? So that was the way we talked. And that was how we went into the first separation of conjoined twins in the Philippines. ⁓ And this was a because this was a neuro. They were joined at the on the parietal. ⁓ Yes, one twin was ⁓ north the other twin facing south.
Vibhavari: Renio Pegas.
Iluminada Camagay: There was no one who was above all the others. How do we do this? That was we successfully were able to form this team and which I think to this day we are able to carry out.
Vrushali: Yeah, yes. Yeah. Actually, while you were saying this, so many cases came through my mind where we actually sat and thought of as to how do we now go about doing. So you've really gone interdisciplinary long back. That's fantastic. have another question for you. What does leadership in pediatric anesthesia mean to you today?
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah. I don't even think of myself as a leader all I do is try to do it as best as I could. ⁓ it comes from setting the example. Setting the example because, you know, I'm...
Vrushali: need for example as it were.
Iluminada Camagay: Yes, setting an example because you see I'm the eldest of a brood of four. So my parents always said, you act as an example to your siblings because you're the eldest. So I think this way of conducting myself has found its way through the practice of anesthesia.
Vrushali: Yeah. Yeah. True. Yeah. ⁓ what qualities would you like the younger generation to have? Give me three qualities.
Iluminada Camagay: Next generation, hard work. Work hard. Humility, be humble, doesn't cost anything. Curiosity and honesty, just four. Truth is a labor-saving device.
Vrushali: Yeah, give me. It's hard to work. Yeah.
Vibhavari: Sure, lovely. Lovely for those messages that you've had for younger generation. I really like the way you talk, the way you share stories from your life. I also like the way you make observations tell us how it changes the moment. how have your observations, the reflections you had from your observations, how did they help Shape your clinical thinking.
Iluminada Camagay: I don't, I read a lot. But when I'm in a public place or waiting for something, I just keep looking. Because I let my imagination go haywire. fellow, where does he come from? What does he do? I keep asking questions and then I imagine maybe he or she does this. Because it has helped me. in my observation of a patient. What's this patient showing? Is this normal? What's happening to this patient? So I try to cull from what is at the back of my mind, my memory. Is there something here that I could have encountered and which could offer a solution or a resolution to the problems I am facing in a patient now?
Vrushali: other words, harness the of observation in life that actually aids a lot in the operating room.
Iluminada Camagay: Yes,
Vrushali: brings back deepest in your every question but ⁓ sure you'll tell us.
Iluminada Camagay: What fulfills me is a good anesthetic delivered. It may be a circumcision, an excision, but if the anesthetic goes well, I'm happy. That's my sense of fulfillment.
Vrushali: Simple. The Yes.
Iluminada Camagay: So for me, it's simple joys of ⁓ an anesthetic, ⁓ well-delivered anesthetic. with a child who is feeding after you wake him up and without pain. That's it.
Vrushali: Yes, yes, Anna, how I agree with you on this. How I agree with you on this. Or a child who wakes up on table and yawns. Yes. ⁓
Iluminada Camagay: That me happy. I don't care if I earn. ⁓
Vibhavari: Very sweet of you, so well said. It's been really lovely talking to you, Dr. Elamnada, and It's time for us to start closing. What message would you leave for the young anesthesiologist, or rather, how would you like to be remembered amongst them?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, I want to be remembered as somebody who told the truth, who was honest and worked hard. That's all.
Vibhavari: Simple and sweet.
Vrushali: Yes. Vibha, don't you think this was a very grounding podcast? Yeah? a reminder. that medicine is just not knowledge. However, it is also about how we grow through it.
Vibhavari: Absolutely. Yeah. So true. And what we see as limitations can quietly become our greatest strengths.
Vrushali: So thank you for reminding us that greatness does not always arrive loudly. Sometimes it is built gently over a period of years through honesty, humility and care.
Vibhavari: through little joys, like she said, they've become a life well lived, isn't it?
Vrushali: Absolutely, absolutely. So thank you so much for being here, madam. It was a true joy I'm sure Vibha is thinking absolutely the same thoughts. And thank you all the viewers here. Thank you for joining Vsync at Aspa and I am honored that I hear all these warm comments coming over and look, me and Vibha actually converse today, all right? ⁓ Over to you, Vibha, now take it.
Iluminada Camagay: ⁓
Vibhavari: we did. Our banter. ⁓
Vrushali: ⁓
Vibhavari: And I hope, all of you listeners are coming to ASPA 2026 in Velor, September 10th to 12th. Please mark it in your calendars and Rishali and me are waiting to meet you there.
Vrushali: Yes. Absolutely yes.
Vibhavari: So
Vrushali: Yes. So let's make it triple V. Vrushali, Vibha and meeting you at Wellode. So this podcast please log in watch it in Spotify, Apple podcast and the social handles of Aspa especially Aspa website and YouTube. So wonderful evening at least from three of us and I'm so sure it's going to be the same with you all of you.
Vibhavari: Yes. until next time, stay curious and kind. ⁓ Bye bye.
Vrushali: Bye for now.
Iluminada Camagay: Bye!
Vibhavari: Hello, and I'm Vibha. I'm good. Is it hot in Mumbai?
Vrushali: are you today? Yes.
Vibhavari: Yeah, pretty hot in Hyderabad as well. But today we are here to listen to a story that reminds us that brilliance does not always begin with confidence. Sometimes it begins a doubt and can evolve into something extraordinary. Isn't it, Rishali?
Vrushali: too. true. Well said, Vibha. We honored to welcome Illuminada Camagay with journey that resilience, quiet strength, a deep commitment care. Her is not just about medicine, but courage, purpose, and the power of growing oneself. Madam, is ⁓ a privilege to have you with us today. Could you please ⁓ hello to our audience today?
Iluminada Camagay: Hello everyone in the ASPA world and beyond. It is my privilege to share with you my thoughts tonight. Thank you for this opportunity.
Vibhavari: so much Dr. for joining us here today. We are really looking forward to this conversation, to learning from your journey and your experiences.
Iluminada Camagay: I hope so.
Vrushali: Yes, as said, your journey with hesitation. You have described as slow learner and you entered medicine against will. How that shape the doctor and teacher became? Please tell us.
Iluminada Camagay: Well, let me tell you first, my mother, her parents were uneducated illiterate farmers. but she wanted to be a doctor, but they couldn't afford it at that time. So my father, who fought in the Second World War, was given a benefit, educational benefits. So my mother said, Why don't you avail of those benefits and be a doctor? Well, actually, I just wanted to work in a bookstore. I told myself when I finish and take all the exams, I'm still going to work in a bookstore. When I passed all the requisite examinations, I thought everything would be such a waste. So I took a look at anesthesia and I thought after the anesthetics delivered, I could go home and do what I wished. In my time, the in the top of my class specialized in internal medicine. Those who went to anesthesia were the dregs. Actually, in the Philippine General Hospital, those who were in anesthesia were not from the university. They were from other schools. And the anesthesia was then considered a technique. It wasn't a specialty. But I had an opportunity. I did not figure out that my friendship with Merle de la Cruz-Odi, I hope you met her. She is of my ⁓ best friends. So I was in my internship, she was a resident in anesthesia, and I would see her go to the library going over Goodman Gilman. This is the pharmacology textbook and ⁓ physics know, Merle is a very bright person, so I figured there must be something to it. So eventually I said, maybe if I go to anesthesia.
Vibhavari: I remember.
Iluminada Camagay: because they would only accept the top of the class in internal medicine, which I wanted. Maybe I will be accepted. Besides, figured out next to internal medicine, it's anesthesia, which could bring together or weave into the fabric of health care, basic sciences and clinical sciences. I think even more than internal medicine. So I into it. And that was how I got reigned into anesthesia.
Vibhavari: Thank you for the lovely story. wanted to translate this experience for of the young doctors who today might struggle with self-doubt and may that they are just not enough. So what would you want to say to them?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, to this point, I am still the insecure person I have been as a child. I'm extremely insecure. First of all, know, the insecurity has never left me. When I was a child, I was very dark. And in a Spanish-American colonial society which prized fair skin, I was no beauty. I was never tough in school. My mother told me I was brutally frank. Nobody asked me to marry him until I was 45 years old. Can you imagine that? And this particular insecurity, which has not left me to this day, has made me someone who is always trying, finding out, studying. I'm always trying to find out how do we things clear, all right? Can solutions be deprived out of this clarity? And I think this has evolved into the kind of person that I am as a teacher. And I believe that this insecurity has turned over the years a strength.
Vrushali: Mm-hmm.
Iluminada Camagay: You know, one is never enough in this world. Otherwise, we would be God.
Vibhavari: So true. Thank you.
Vrushali: Yes, was so and it so soothing to hear that somebody at this level can say that, I used to insecure. ⁓ And what a whoever thought you were not beautiful. I'm not too sure. mean, they're standard. ⁓
Iluminada Camagay: I'm still, I still am.
Vibhavari: She's so beautiful even at this age. Wow.
Vrushali: Absolutely and you know what I recall love for books ⁓ a bookstore. You had taken me after the in Philippine. I was a nobody. Nobody knew me. I didn't know anybody much. was just loitering around and you said, hey, come here. What are you doing all alone? Let me take away. I wanted buy books for my kids. She actually drove me. Then we sat by the street to listen to jazz music. I can't forget evening you offered to me, madam, at that time. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the person that you are.
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah.
Vrushali: Thank you.
Iluminada Camagay: Thank you. think it comes out of the way we were brought up. You my mother was a school teacher and she'd always say, you have to live the golden rule. you know, would even take strangers she meets in a hotel lobby who have no place to go home to because they've finished all their money. because she said that when my children are in a foreign land, they are also going to be like this. So take care of them. That was what she inculcated in us.
Vrushali: Thank you so much. So when did anesthesia stop being just a career to you and when it become a calling?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, it was first, let me give you a background. In the Philippines, when we finish anesthesia training, we go into private practice and that's where the money is. And I did not take that pathway. I decided go to Scandinavia and my trip there, was an eye-opener. in that kind of an atmosphere or that environment, what was more important was to practice academic anesthesia rather than a private practice.
Vibhavari: Sure, sure, thank you. Based on what we spoke earlier about, know, your early years in life, in training that you spent in Scandinavia, you mentioned that those transformative years for you. What I wanted to ask you was, what really with you from that time? And how did shape when you later...
Iluminada Camagay: Yes.
Vibhavari: worked in pediatric anesthesia.
Iluminada Camagay: few things. are the experiences. At time I was training for anesthesia. Scandinavia was the mecca at that time. these things have stayed with me to this day are first, the refreshing honesty. I remember asking Olie Berner, the developer of the Berner valve, a physics related question. I was shocked when he without hesitation said, I don't know. Imagine the Bernal valve himself saying, I don't know, So this honesty in Scandinavia is in all aspects of their life. So this is what I imbibe. The other thing is the egalitarianism, the basic equality. And so this has been my sense of social justice, conscience, and egalitarianism I found Scandinavia. Let give you an example. The heads of departments took public transport. They carried their lunch in their briefcases. The heads took coffee with, converse, argued, shared the same space. as the lowest member of the totem pole in the healthcare system. The other thing that has stayed with me is the opportunities that are offered in equal measure to everybody. and which I sustained with me, I offer whatever I could offer to everybody. And then a very important thing I imbibe is the humility and the low-key demeanor, even the highest presented in all aspects of their life. And then a very, very thing for me is that the Scandinavians found joy in simple, basic things. Simple joys, not the big bang. And yet the beauty of Scandinavian design, elegance in their glass architecture and food made it all worth it, despite the isolation of being in a foreign country. And lastly, that's Success in anesthesia lies in its academic practice. That's why I told you I went into academic practice. Those are what I found in that sojourn, which is a transfiguration.
Vrushali: wonder they're the happiest country in the world today and have the Abora as well. Wonderful. for sharing that. You work with mentors, as you just said, and also ⁓ strong training What of your passion for teaching, may I ask?
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah. Yes. Oh, well, when I came back from Scandinavia, I was reigned in to be faculty of the center. The director of the center at that time was Professor Quintin Gomez, was also the father of anesthesia in the Philippines. There were three of us who were working with him. Dr. Merle Odi. Dr. Lydia Agay and myself. So we were called Quintin's Angels. I have mentioned Dr. Odi as my earliest mentor and I have endeavored to model myself after her. So we concentrated on teaching and the fellows because we thought we needed to teach those lone anesthesiologists in an isolated far-flung Pacific island, So we had it in us to give them everything they could use when they were all by themselves, you know. And this very close companionship with the two other angels and to Professor Gomez. been chiseled into my academic life. For example, Professor Gomez wrote beautifully. He was the president of the World Federation of Anesthesiologists. he would try to do something with machine and let you know what's happened, those tricks. And then he would say, if you don't think fast, the patient will get ahead of you. another where I had some form of mentorship was during the World Congress of Anesthesiologists in 1984 here in Manila. I was suddenly called to be on the stage with the panel on pediatric anesthesia and I was on the stage there with Fred Berry, Moyers, the one from Australia, Kester Brown. I was less than 40 years And then when I was on the stage, I suddenly saw Dr. Jackson reach out the door. He had and I was put in his place. Can you imagine that? So those are the mentorships that I got.
Vibhavari: Thank
Vrushali: Good day. Yeah.
Vibhavari: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing so many stories. I really like the being called as Stinton's angels. ⁓ was lovely. Exactly. Right. Some more stories that I've heard about you is how you helped evolve the surgeon anesthesiologist relationship into a true team. ⁓ And would want to,
Iluminada Camagay: Yes, from Charlie's Angels.
Vrushali: difficulties.
Vibhavari: to ask is what principles guided you, especially in complex pediatric cases? How did being a true team help in there?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, I think it's something of a fluke because when I came back from Scandinavia, old pediatric surgeons were trained in the US. My generation, one came back from Liverpool working with Sir Jackson Reese. Then the other pediatric surgeon was a female who trained in Australia, which is still under the British system. And there, is a measure equality among others. So these two pediatric surgeons I worked with, made it very easy because and then there was another one and female neurosurgeon who trained in Israel and was almost a professor in Switzerland. We all worked together. You we were very down to earth. We knew that we needed to know so many things. So whenever a difficult case would come our way we would come together and talk and let's say what is the most that we know about this patient? else do we need to know? And how are we going to come about resolving the problem that this patient poses? So that was the way we talked. And that was how we went into the first separation of conjoined twins in the Philippines. ⁓ And this was a because this was a neuro. They were joined at the on the parietal. ⁓ Yes, one twin was ⁓ north the other twin facing south.
Vibhavari: Renio Pegas.
Iluminada Camagay: There was no one who was above all the others. How do we do this? That was we successfully were able to form this team and which I think to this day we are able to carry out.
Vrushali: Yeah, yes. Yeah. Actually, while you were saying this, so many cases came through my mind where we actually sat and thought of as to how do we now go about doing. So you've really gone interdisciplinary long back. That's fantastic. have another question for you. What does leadership in pediatric anesthesia mean to you today?
Iluminada Camagay: Yeah. I don't even think of myself as a leader all I do is try to do it as best as I could. ⁓ it comes from setting the example. Setting the example because, you know, I'm...
Vrushali: need for example as it were.
Iluminada Camagay: Yes, setting an example because you see I'm the eldest of a brood of four. So my parents always said, you act as an example to your siblings because you're the eldest. So I think this way of conducting myself has found its way through the practice of anesthesia.
Vrushali: Yeah. Yeah. True. Yeah. ⁓ what qualities would you like the younger generation to have? Give me three qualities.
Iluminada Camagay: Next generation, hard work. Work hard. Humility, be humble, doesn't cost anything. Curiosity and honesty, just four. Truth is a labor-saving device.
Vrushali: Yeah, give me. It's hard to work. Yeah.
Vibhavari: Sure, lovely. Lovely for those messages that you've had for younger generation. I really like the way you talk, the way you share stories from your life. I also like the way you make observations tell us how it changes the moment. how have your observations, the reflections you had from your observations, how did they help Shape your clinical thinking.
Iluminada Camagay: I don't, I read a lot. But when I'm in a public place or waiting for something, I just keep looking. Because I let my imagination go haywire. fellow, where does he come from? What does he do? I keep asking questions and then I imagine maybe he or she does this. Because it has helped me. in my observation of a patient. What's this patient showing? Is this normal? What's happening to this patient? So I try to cull from what is at the back of my mind, my memory. Is there something here that I could have encountered and which could offer a solution or a resolution to the problems I am facing in a patient now?
Vrushali: other words, harness the of observation in life that actually aids a lot in the operating room.
Iluminada Camagay: Yes,
Vrushali: brings back deepest in your every question but ⁓ sure you'll tell us.
Iluminada Camagay: What fulfills me is a good anesthetic delivered. It may be a circumcision, an excision, but if the anesthetic goes well, I'm happy. That's my sense of fulfillment.
Vrushali: Simple. The Yes.
Iluminada Camagay: So for me, it's simple joys of ⁓ an anesthetic, ⁓ well-delivered anesthetic. with a child who is feeding after you wake him up and without pain. That's it.
Vrushali: Yes, yes, Anna, how I agree with you on this. How I agree with you on this. Or a child who wakes up on table and yawns. Yes. ⁓
Iluminada Camagay: That me happy. I don't care if I earn. ⁓
Vibhavari: Very sweet of you, so well said. It's been really lovely talking to you, Dr. Elamnada, and It's time for us to start closing. What message would you leave for the young anesthesiologist, or rather, how would you like to be remembered amongst them?
Iluminada Camagay: Well, I want to be remembered as somebody who told the truth, who was honest and worked hard. That's all.
Vibhavari: Simple and sweet.
Vrushali: Yes. Vibha, don't you think this was a very grounding podcast? Yeah? a reminder. that medicine is just not knowledge. However, it is also about how we grow through it.
Vibhavari: Absolutely. Yeah. So true. And what we see as limitations can quietly become our greatest strengths.
Vrushali: So thank you for reminding us that greatness does not always arrive loudly. Sometimes it is built gently over a period of years through honesty, humility and care.
Vibhavari: through little joys, like she said, they've become a life well lived, isn't it?
Vrushali: Absolutely, absolutely. So thank you so much for being here, madam. It was a true joy I'm sure Vibha is thinking absolutely the same thoughts. And thank you all the viewers here. Thank you for joining Vsync at Aspa and I am honored that I hear all these warm comments coming over and look, me and Vibha actually converse today, all right? ⁓ Over to you, Vibha, now take it.
Iluminada Camagay: ⁓
Vibhavari: we did. Our banter. ⁓
Vrushali: ⁓
Vibhavari: And I hope, all of you listeners are coming to ASPA 2026 in Velor, September 10th to 12th. Please mark it in your calendars and Rishali and me are waiting to meet you there.
Vrushali: Yes. Absolutely yes.
Vibhavari: So
Vrushali: Yes. So let's make it triple V. Vrushali, Vibha and meeting you at Wellode. So this podcast please log in watch it in Spotify, Apple podcast and the social handles of Aspa especially Aspa website and YouTube. So wonderful evening at least from three of us and I'm so sure it's going to be the same with you all of you.
Vibhavari: Yes. until next time, stay curious and kind. ⁓ Bye bye.
Vrushali: Bye for now.
Iluminada Camagay: Bye!
