A great surgeon

It is an irrefutable fact that there is poverty, hunger, illiteracy, etc. in the Indian subcontinent -- India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. Yet to read the same thing day after day in The Jakarta Post is, at best, boring. If you have to cover the sub- continent, you should write about heroes such as Dr. Naresh Trehan.

After building a successful career in America at the New York University Medical Center, Naresh moved back to India. He opened the nation's first heart institute, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center, which is a state-of-the-art facility. And his involvement is literally saving lives.

Patients come from all over India, as well as from the far reaches of Southeast Asia, for his relatively inexpensive treatment. Those who can't pay are not required to. To keep his staff on top of the latest developments, Naresh has arranged an exchange program with NYU. He also offers screening and educational programs in remote villages. He has already performed 12,500 open-heart surgeries and now plans to open six more facilities throughout the country.

His efforts are laudable in a country which has the world's highest incidence of heart disease, with an estimated 2.5 million cases diagnosed each year. He says: "The gratification that comes from helping Indian patients is much higher for me. In your own environment, you're involved -- it is not just making a living."

Dr. Naresh Trehan, you are great, keep it up.

D. PRABHAKAR

Jakarta