A few years ago, a friend sent me what I would later learn was a typically bizarre tweet by @njohncamm, asking if I knew who he was. No idea, but something bothered me – he almost shared a name with a very famous cardiologist, Professor John Camm
Coincidence?
No...much stranger
He went viral yesterday, but within cardiology circles we've known about him for a while and, while his lack of filter could occasionally be quite entertaining, he is routinely misogynistic, anti LGBTQ, racist & antivax. So I went to look him up.
His personal website, full of typos, states he spent some time at St George's Hospital in London, my alma mater, where the real Prof John Camm works. It also reads very strangely if you know the bodies/journals he's referring to.
A bit more digging unearthed these pics from India, which are astonishingly bad photoshops. Look how his knee disappears!
The building on his profile banner is apparently the planned N John Camm Institute in Rajasthan, opening 2027
It's actually a stock image of a non-existent residential complex
The name was still bothering me. N John Camm? Of course there are millions of Christians in India but it didn't seem like a typical name. So I started looking through some of the cardiology journals he mentioned and found a case report by Narendra John Camm
Looking up that name brought several dissolved UK-based companies listing Narendra John Camm as a director, with the job title 'cardiologist'
Two companies went by the name 'Braunwald'
Eugene Braunwald is considered one of the fathers of modern cardiology
"N John Camm" from twitter's original name appears to be Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav
Professor John Camm (the original) and Eugene Braunwald (below) are household names in cardiology
Could the (fake) N John Camm have changed his name to bask in reflected glory of a well known name in cardiology? And chosen a company name for the exact same reason??
But that's not even the most interesting part. When you search for his real name, things get spicier
Our crusading truth telling cardiologist was suspended for several years (perhaps necessitating the name change?) and arrested in India, with charges including kidnapping!
lol of course
I've got no doubt he's a cardiologist. I know cardiology has an image problem. We seem to play an outsized role in supplying bellends to twitter. And hey, sometimes I find that kind of funny. But then I read some replies to his tweets.
I'm blocked but I think the tweet might be deleted anyway. He mocked the closest thing medtwitter has to a royal couple, but more importantly mocked the families of cardiac arrest survivors
I've seen ppl say he reinforces their view that cardiologists don't take women seriously, or even how Indians are racist towards black people
But more than that, I saw some people criticise the REAL John Camm, from St George's, using his pic, for things THIS guy has said.
He's not John Camm. He's a very naughty boy.
Anyway, I need to eat some dinner after a pretty exhausting day.
And yes, I know the cardiology meme is coming. I can't even argue. Fire away.
Addendum: German-speaker @scullingmonkey cannot find any listing of him at the German Hospital he claims to work at klinikum-nuernberg.de/DE/ueber_uns/F…
Further addenda: several replies from ppl whose work he’s stolen, academic articles he’s faked or used ppl’s names without permission, but I’ve also now been contacted by a former employer. They mention things that make me nervous to even share without a lawyer involved.
!!!
More emails coming in. Starting to think I need a team to do this justice 😮💨
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