Front and Center: Dr. Satya Packianathan

Since 2009, Dr. Satya Packianathan has helped heal University of Mississippi Medical Center patients coping with thoracic and gastrointestinal tumors.

But Dr. Pack, as his patients and colleagues call him, offers them more than his medical expertise. He hand-crafts lamps and places them around the Department of Radiation Oncology and its clinic at the Jackson Medical Mall so that patients can take solace in their whimsical beauty.

His hobby isn't unusual, seeing that Packianathan, an assistant professor of radiation/oncology, worked as an electrical technician in his native Malaysia before beginning his medical education.

“You kind of miss working with your hands,” said Packianathan, who came to this country to earn an undergraduate degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, then went on to receive his doctor of philosophy degree at Loma Linda University in California and his doctor of medicine at the University of California-Davis. He completed a residency at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.

He scours area flea markets, second-hand stores and thrift shops for old lamps, whole or in need of repair, and then repurposes the parts to make completely different lamps. “I started out collecting old oil lamps and converting them to electric, so making lamps manually followed,” Packianathan said.

He prefers to use glass lamp shades, but will adapt most any shade he finds.

“It's pretty simple to find things,” Packianathan said. “People are always throwing out lamps.”

“Dr. Pack” lifts the spirits of not just patients, but all those who work in Radiation Oncology, said Susan Garner, an insurance verification specialist.

“They are gorgeous,” she said of the dozen-plus lamps that grace tabletops, nurses' stations and patient exam and conference rooms. And because so many patients have fallen in love with the lamps, Garner said, the physician has donated a number for fundraisers to help their cancer patients with unmet needs, such as transportation or medications.

“He will go to anywhere where he thinks they might have parts, and he buys them out of his own pocket,” Garner said. “He's extremely generous. His patients love him.”

Packianathan returns that love. He says he yet to clean out the metro area's second-hand lamp market. “I use whatever I have available, and if something better shows up later on, I'll replace it,” he said.

“You have a lot of parts lying around. You need a lot of inspiration.”