Humans of Safe Care, Saving Lives

This is the ninth in a series of profiles of the dedicated individuals behind the Safe Care, Saving Lives project. Safe Care, Saving Lives is a quality improvement project to improve neonatal care in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 

“Pediatrics has always been a passion for me, not a subject or a specialization. I came from humble beginnings, the son of a sanitary inspector in the municipal corporation. My mother was a homemaker. I was brought up alongside two brothers and a sister. I was the eldest, born in Gosha Hospital when my mother was just fifteen years old. I was always good at studies. I remember being promoted from the third to the sixth grade directly in Ankapally, where I studied.

My father always wanted a better life for me, so he pushed me toward science and wanted me to become a physician. I feel immensely blessed to have trained under my guru, Pampana Venkateshwara Rao, who showed me the way to enjoy studies and achieve any goals that I set for myself.

The happiest moment of my life was in 1988, when I won the gold medal in pediatrics, which had not been given to any student at Andhra University in the past thirteen years. In eighteen years of practice, I have faced many challenges. I have always believed that the solution to any problem lies within the problem itself.

Venkata Padma Hospital is a labor of my love, in many ways. I have grown it from a single bed clinic to a 130 bed specialty hospital. I remain immensely grateful to the community for their support.

We are all here for a reason, and I believe my reason is to save lives!”