Mangalore: Dr Santosh Narayanan, a student of AJ  Institute of Medical Sciences has bagged a total of 17 gold medals on completion of his course, the highest won by any single student so far.

 Of the 69 gold medals conferred to 45 meritorious students during the convocation held here, 17 were bagged by  Santosh alone.In the Kerala SSLC exams, he had scored 96 per cent  and stood 15th.

A total of A total of 27,512 candidates were awarded degrees while Ph.D. degrees were given to 34 candidates at the 15th convocation of the Rajeev Gandhi University of Health Scienes held in Bangalore.

 True to his achievement, Dr Santosh Narayanan has baged a seat in the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry for an MD course. HE intends to do his MD in general medicine and specialise in haematology-oncology.The gold medallist wants to concentrate on research in the treatment of cancer.

 Bhankar Ruchi Ramesh from A.B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, bagged four medals in the convocation. She hails from Gujarat and plans to do her postgraduation (PG) in endodontics here,” she said.

Earlier, Padma Bhushan B.M. Hegde, former Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University, delivered the convocation address.In his address he urged young doctors to spend more time with their patients and emphathise with them instead of sympathizing.