DR NARESH TREHAN
Chairman & MD, MEDANTA
NARESH TREHAN,74
Driven by the desire to set up a hospital that would ensure world-class cardiac care in the country, the US-trained surgeon returned to India in 1988. Besides setting up world-class hospital groups such as Escorts and Medanta, he has till date performed 50,000 successful open heart surgeries
In 1967, while studying for MBBS at King George’s Medical College in Lucknow, Dr Naresh Trehan recalls feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness as he watched many of his patients die of heart disease. And so, almost immediately after graduating, he applied to Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia to specialise in cardiac surgery. “In those days, most Indians had no option but to go abroad for cardiac treatment. It was very disheartening to not be able to help your patients. So I resolved early on that I will go abroad to train and return with new skills,” says Dr Trehan.
The decision to go to the US in 1970 changed his life and career. “I wanted to train under Dr Frank Spencer, the then chairman of the New York University hospital. He usually had a waiting list of five years for people who wanted to train under him. In Philadelphia, I was told Dr Spencer doesn’t interact with foreign students, so I decided to write to him personally explaining my ambitions and skills. He wrote back saying that it wasn’t true that he didn’t consider foreigners, and he asked me to come in for an interview. There were 32 people, of which four would become chief residents and only one or two would become cardiac surgeons. I worked hard, and made the cut,” recalls Dr Trehan. He joined the NYU faculty in 1977 where he would remain till his return to India.
“The desire to come back to India was always there. I have always wanted to help people improve their health and lives. After a successful cardiac surgery, you can see the results in the operating theatre itself. The more patients I saved, the more I wanted to return to India to work,” he says. However, the search to find the right institution took him years. “I knew the Indian system very well. I knew there would be barriers towards progressing freely in a field that was as new as heart surgery. And so I did not return till
I found the right opportunity,” he says. It was in the early 1980s that the move to India got clarity and direction. “H.P. Nanda, the then chairman of Escorts, on a visit to
NYU, met with me and together we decided on opening a hospital dedicated to cardiac surgery and treatment. I wanted to bring the whole system of heart surgery to the country and make India selfreliant,” he says. Dr Trehan finally returned to India in 1987.
But the initial few years in setting up the Escorts Heart Institute were far from easy. From hunting for land to recruiting surgeons from around the world, it took years of hard work before Dr Trehan became one of the country’s best cardiac specialists. From 1987 to 2007, Escorts was conceptualised, created and managed by Dr Trehan himself. “I used to operate on a patient and then sleep on a bed next to them because there was always so much work to do. Initially, people used to mock me and ask, ‘What will Naresh do on his own?’ But I have a firm philosophy to shun negativity and so I continued to train people so that they could give their best. Eventually, my team at Escorts was as good as any of the surgeons in the West.”
Today, Dr Trehan has completed over 50,000 successful open heart surgeries. “Being a doctor suits my personality. I can really relate to people, I like to interact with them. This was the right career for me,” he says. Despite decades of success in the medical field and having treated a long list of celebrities, politicians and bureaucrats, he maintains a humble approach towards his work and career. “During my medical training itself, I learnt how to stay level-headed and not to believe I am greater than anyone.”
In 2009, Dr Trehan decided to push the limits once more and set up his own hospital, Medant,a in Gurgaon. The chain has since expanded to other cities, including Delhi, Lucknow, Ranchi and Kolkata. “Research is something I feel very strongly about and I believed India should have a hospital that is at par with hospitals abroad in terms of research and development. But no such institute existed at the time. We were doing great in terms of clinical advancement but were lagging behind in the research field. At Medanta, the idea was to bring the two together,” says Dr Trehan.
Having received the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan for his contribution to the field of medicine, he continues to work towards improving the country’s health infrastructure. “There are plans to start a medical college which would be attached to Medanta. We already run several medical research programmes,” says Dr Trehan. His vision to make India a hub for cardiac surgery came true when Escorts began receiving patients from abroad for treatment. And he believes that the country will soon achieve similar success in the field of medical research and education. ■
“We were doing great in terms of clinical advancement but were lagging in the research field. At Medanta, the idea was to bring the two fields together”