DOCTOR ACROSS BORDERS

ATLANTA-BASED NEUROSURGEON AND CNN’S CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT DR. SANJAY GUPTA IS A REPORTER WITH A MEDICAL DEGREE, A TV HOST WITH A PAST WHITE HOUSE FELLOWSHIP AND AN AUTHOR WITH A SHELF OF EMMYS. TINA THAKRAR JUMPS IN ON THE JOURNEY TOWARDS AND BEYOND HIS CELEBRATED ACHIEVEMENTS

- TINA THAKAR

When I was sifting through the multi-page bios of Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the web, it’s this moniker that stuck with me. I thought, maybe he’s named so because he’d been dispensing pertinent medical advice to thousands of TV viewers on the CNN and CBS networks for the last two decades, or because he’d operated on people from almost every part of the globe, or simply that he was the relatable, ambitious Indian-born son of two immigrants in the US who went on to become one of the most respected and sought-after healthcare professionals in the world.

Neurosurgeon, multiple Emmy-award winner, medical correspondent, author, speaker, TV host and producer, White House Fellow, triathlete, husband and father to three girls - Sanjay’s had an interesting journey that began in a small town in Michigan, where he grew up with a Punjabi father from India, a Sindhi (Hingorani) mother from Pakistan, and his brother Suneel.

Sanjay is currently chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and chief medical correspondent at CNN, besides a host of other roles he’s taken on throughout his career.

In his early years, medicine was never really on the cards for Sanjay, primarily because his parents were both automotive engineers. “I was about 13 when my grandfather had a stroke, and I spent a lot of time with him in the hospital. That was my first exposure to the field, and I was hooked.” Not long after, he was accepted to the University of Michigan Medical School straight out of high school as part of an accelerated medical education program. It was then that he chose to specialize in neurosurgery.