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Amazing! From an Indian village to one of the world's finest heart surgeons
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com
He was born in a village in Odisha.
Today, Dr Ramakant Panda -- who has performed more than 18,000 heart operations including one on the prime minister and built a world-class hospital -- is considered one of the best cardiac surgeons in the world.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore on Dr Panda's incredible story:
Growing up in the 1960s in Odisha in a village that did not attach much premium on getting educated, Dr Ramakant Panda is considered one of the best cardiac surgeons in the world today.
He has performed over 18,000 cardiac surgeries, 3,000 of them in the high-risk category, 1,000 redo bypass surgeries, including one on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 24, 2009.
"The biggest challenge was to keep away from getting astray," Dr Panda recalls his childhood in Damodarpur in Odisha's Jashpur district.
Dr Panda -- vice-chairman and managing director of one of India's best cardiac care hospitals, Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute which recently treated its 200,000th patient -- credits his parents, his grandfather and his school headmaster for his success.
"All these people prevented me from going astray and help me become what I am today," he says.
Always a brilliant student Dr Panda credits his maternal uncle for inspiring him to become a doctor. "My mama was a doctor, a pretty successful doctor. He retired as the Director General Medical Services in the Indian armed forces. He was my inspiration."
How did he not go astray? Dr Panda recalls two incidents from his childhood that left its indelible impression on him.
Once he played truant from school to play gulli danda for five days, but was caught out by his mother and headmaster.
"I got the beating of my life from my mother and for more than eight hours she locked me in a room and didn't give me any food," he says, recalling how strict his mother was.
Later, as a 14-year-old preparing for his board exams after rigorous hours of study, Dr Panda and his friends would sneak out to watch movies from 9 to 12 at night to Jashpur from Damodarpur -- a distance of 18 km -- on bicycles and come back by 2 in the morning to the school hostel without the headmaster getting any scent of it.
Luck again deserted him.
Being the most brilliant student in class, the headmaster made him kneel in the scorching sun for three hours.
"That was the most humiliating event in my life, something that brought about a major change in my life."
"After that I never indulged in such childish acts. I grew up much faster."
"Overnight I became an adult."
Dr Panda went on to study medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and from there on to the Cleveland Clinic, perhaps the finest heart care hospital in the world.
In this interview with Rediff.com, Dr Panda tells Prasanna D Zore about the milestones in his life, his role models, success mantras, his love for the Hilsa fish and how he built the Asian Heart Institute from scratch.
What has Mumbai done for Dr Ramakant Panda? Tell us about your bond with this city...
Mumbai has done everything for me. I don't think I would have succeeded as I have succeeded anywhere else.
A great team is always very crucial for any successful venture. Tell us about your team building efforts..
When I came back from the US, I was going from hospital to hospital; I had that burning desire to put up a hospital. So wherever I found good, sincere, hard working people I started cultivating them and saw to it that they became a part of my team. And those people have been there with me from the last 20 years.
Our teamwork is excellent and one of the keys to the success of Asian Heart is teamwork.
Amazing! From an Indian village to one of the world's finest heart surgeons - Rediff Getahead
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He was born in a village in Odisha.
Today, Dr Ramakant Panda -- who has performed more than 18,000 heart operations including one on the prime minister and built a world-class hospital -- is considered one of the best cardiac surgeons in the world.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore on Dr Panda's incredible story:
Growing up in the 1960s in Odisha in a village that did not attach much premium on getting educated, Dr Ramakant Panda is considered one of the best cardiac surgeons in the world today.
He has performed over 18,000 cardiac surgeries, 3,000 of them in the high-risk category, 1,000 redo bypass surgeries, including one on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 24, 2009.
"The biggest challenge was to keep away from getting astray," Dr Panda recalls his childhood in Damodarpur in Odisha's Jashpur district.
Dr Panda -- vice-chairman and managing director of one of India's best cardiac care hospitals, Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute which recently treated its 200,000th patient -- credits his parents, his grandfather and his school headmaster for his success.
"All these people prevented me from going astray and help me become what I am today," he says.
Always a brilliant student Dr Panda credits his maternal uncle for inspiring him to become a doctor. "My mama was a doctor, a pretty successful doctor. He retired as the Director General Medical Services in the Indian armed forces. He was my inspiration."
How did he not go astray? Dr Panda recalls two incidents from his childhood that left its indelible impression on him.
Once he played truant from school to play gulli danda for five days, but was caught out by his mother and headmaster.
"I got the beating of my life from my mother and for more than eight hours she locked me in a room and didn't give me any food," he says, recalling how strict his mother was.
Later, as a 14-year-old preparing for his board exams after rigorous hours of study, Dr Panda and his friends would sneak out to watch movies from 9 to 12 at night to Jashpur from Damodarpur -- a distance of 18 km -- on bicycles and come back by 2 in the morning to the school hostel without the headmaster getting any scent of it.
Luck again deserted him.
Being the most brilliant student in class, the headmaster made him kneel in the scorching sun for three hours.
"That was the most humiliating event in my life, something that brought about a major change in my life."
"After that I never indulged in such childish acts. I grew up much faster."
"Overnight I became an adult."
Dr Panda went on to study medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and from there on to the Cleveland Clinic, perhaps the finest heart care hospital in the world.
In this interview with Rediff.com, Dr Panda tells Prasanna D Zore about the milestones in his life, his role models, success mantras, his love for the Hilsa fish and how he built the Asian Heart Institute from scratch.
What has Mumbai done for Dr Ramakant Panda? Tell us about your bond with this city...
Mumbai has done everything for me. I don't think I would have succeeded as I have succeeded anywhere else.
A great team is always very crucial for any successful venture. Tell us about your team building efforts..
When I came back from the US, I was going from hospital to hospital; I had that burning desire to put up a hospital. So wherever I found good, sincere, hard working people I started cultivating them and saw to it that they became a part of my team. And those people have been there with me from the last 20 years.
Our teamwork is excellent and one of the keys to the success of Asian Heart is teamwork.
Amazing! From an Indian village to one of the world's finest heart surgeons - Rediff Getahead
