Dr. Hari Shankar Asopa [Figure 1] was well known not only in India but all over the world for his expertise in reconstructive surgery, especially in the field of hypospadias and stricture urethra. He was extremely popular among the patients and the public as a kind and humanitarian doctor. He was sympathetic to poor and downtrodden people of his region and served many poor patients by providing them free treatment.

Figure 1.

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Prof HS Asopa

Born in July 1932, Prof. Hari Shankar Asopa graduated from S N Medical College, Agra, with a brilliant career. He stood first in Agra University (including Agra, Gwalior, and Indore Medical Colleges at that time) with several gold medals including the Chancellor’s Medal. He did his MS Surgery (Agra), FRCS (England), and FRCS (Edinburgh) all in 1964, and joined the faculty of SN Medical College, Agra, the same year. Later, he joined as Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery at MLB Medical College, Jhansi, as the youngest Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery at that time. Thereafter, he was Professor Emeritus at SN Medical College, Agra. He was a very popular and respected teacher. He continued his teaching interest by training post-MS doctors and running a postgraduate course of DNB in Surgery and Family Medicine accredited by the National Board of Examinations.

He invented a one-stage operation for hypospadias.[1] One in every 250–300 boys are born with this defect, about 40,000 boys are born every year with this defect in India alone. This procedure, known as the Asopa operation, was soon being done all over the world by urologists, pediatric surgeons, and plastic and general surgeons. Asopa procedure found a place in articles, international journals, international references, and textbooks.

In 1984, he published another operation for hypospadias titled “One Stage Repair of Hypospadias Using Foreskin Tube” which was a refinement of the original Asopa operation and is called Asopa II operation and was later described in textbooks as Asopa Procedure 1990 Version.[2]

An operation invented by Dr. Asopa in the mid-1990s for stricture urethra is being followed universally by urologists worldwide and has made urethral stricture surgery easy and safe to perform.[3] It has been popularized among Reconstructive Urologists in Europe and America as “Dorsal Inlay Urethroplasty” or “Asopa Technique.” Numerous articles have been written by urologists around the world recognizing this technique as a major advancement in urethroplasty and its high success rate.

Yet another operation invented by him has made pancreatic surgery for cancer of pancreas safer by preventing pancreatic fistula and pancreatitis after pancreaticoenteric anastomosis.[4]

Dr. Asopa was invited to give talks on his operations in numerous national and international conferences. Lectures and videos of his intricate surgeries are shown in international conferences and on websites. He demonstrated these operations at workshops in over 50 institutions and preconference workshops in India and abroad, where hundreds of general surgeons, plastic surgeons, pediatric surgeons, and urologists benefited.

Dr. Asopa was awarded many prizes, memberships, and fellowships including Col. Pandalai Oration in 1991, the most prestigious award of the Association of Surgeons of India. He received the “Dr. B. C. Roy National Award” as Eminent Medical Teacher in 1991. He was again awarded the “Dr. B. C. Roy National Award” as Eminent Medical Man for the year 1996, both by the then Presidents of India. This award is given once a year to a medical man out of all medical faculty and disciplines in the country. He was awarded Honorary DSc by Dr. B R Ambedkar University, Agra, in 1995.

Prof. Asopa served as National President of the Association of Surgeons of India in 1996. He was invited to be the Founder and President of the International Society of Hypospadias and Intersex Disorders. This society awards the “Asopa Lecture” to eminent international authorities in its Biennial Conference.

He was honored with “Hunterian Professorship” by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1997, a rare honor for any Indian doctor. He received Col. Sangam Lal Oration and Gen. Amir Chand Oration, both by the National Academy of Medical Sciences of India, and the Asian Society of Pediatric Urology Oration in 2000 for outstanding contribution to pediatric urology. He was awarded fellowship of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, by Dr. Man Mohan Singh (Former Prime Minister of India).

Prof. Asopa was widely known for his gentle behavior, benevolence, and sympathetic attitude toward the weaker sections of society and was honored by various societies and social organizations, including a Vishesh Sammaan Patra (special commemoration letter) in 1988 from then Chief Minister of Rajasthan Shri Shiv Charan Mathur.

This noble soul left for his heavenly abode on November 21, 2023. He is survived by his wife Mrs. Vimla Asopa, sons Dr. Ravi Asopa, a urologist settled in Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Jyoti Asopa, a family physician who is the director of the Asopa Hospital, and daughter Dr. Archana Asopa Nishchal, settled in New York, USA.In the sweltering summer of 1932, beneath the dusty skies of Agra—the city of the Taj Mahal, where love stories were etched in marble—Hari Shankar Asopa entered the world. His father, Dr. S.N. Asopa, a humble physician with calloused hands from tending to the ailments of the poor, looked down at the newborn and whispered to his wife, “This one will heal more than bodies, my dear. He’ll mend the broken pieces no one else dares touch.” Little did they know, those words would echo through decades, as young Hari grew into a man whose hands would redefine hope for thousands.

Hari’s childhood was a tapestry of quiet determination and familial warmth. Raised in a home where medicine wasn’t just a profession but a sacred calling, he spent evenings poring over his father’s medical journals by the flicker of an oil lamp. “Papa,” young Hari would ask, his eyes wide with curiosity, “why do some wounds heal on the outside but hurt on the inside?” His father would chuckle, ruffling the boy’s hair. “Because, beta, true healing starts with seeing the invisible pain. One day, you’ll show the world how.”

By the time Hari stepped into S.N. Medical College in Agra—his father’s alma mater—he was already a force of quiet brilliance. The 1950s were a whirlwind of lectures, dissections, and the relentless rhythm of a medical student’s life. But Hari stood out, not just for his sharp mind, but for his empathy. In the crowded wards, where patients from Agra’s labyrinthine streets arrived with stories heavier than their fevers, he’d linger after rounds. “Doctor saab,” an elderly farmer once rasped, clutching his side, “will I ever plow my fields again?” Hari, barely out of his teens, knelt beside the bed. “Uncle-ji, not just plow—you’ll dance at your granddaughter’s wedding. I promise we’ll make it so.” That promise wasn’t empty; it was the spark of a healer who saw patients as people, not cases.

In 1957, the results came: Hari Asopa had topped Agra University—encompassing medical colleges from Agra to Gwalior and Indore—with a cascade of gold medals, including the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal. His professors clapped him on the back in the echoing halls. “Asopa, you’ve got the hands of a surgeon and the heart of a poet,” one said. “What will you conquer next?” Hari smiled modestly. “The things that make little boys cry in silence, sir.”

He pursued his MS in Surgery, passing in 1964 with the same unyielding grace. Joining the faculty at S.N. Medical College, Agra, he rose swiftly, becoming a beloved professor whose lectures weren’t dry recitals but living tales. Students flocked to him, drawn by his ability to weave anatomy with humanity. “Surgery isn’t about the knife,” he’d say, pacing the theater with a twinkle in his eye, “it’s about rewriting a patient’s story. Cut wisely, and you give them a new chapter.”

But it was in the quiet hours of the operating room that Hari’s genius truly bloomed. Hypospadias—a congenital defect affecting one in every 250 boys, twisting their urinary tract and shrouding childhood in shame—haunted him. In India alone, 40,000 boys were born with it each year, many facing multi-stage surgeries that left scars inside and out. Hari couldn’t accept it. Late nights in 1971, surrounded by sketches and scalpels, he innovated: a single-stage repair using the patient’s own tissue, simple yet revolutionary. Published in the *Journal of International Surgery*, it became known as the Asopa Technique.

The first time he performed it, on a trembling seven-year-old named Raju, the room held its breath. Raju’s mother hovered at the door, tears streaming. “Doctor, my son… he hides when the other boys play. Will he ever be normal?” Hari paused, gloving his hands, and met her gaze. “Aunty, normal isn’t born—it’s built. Today, we build Raju a future where he runs free.” Hours later, as the boy stirred in recovery, Hari leaned in. “Raju beta, tomorrow you’ll chase kites like the wind. No more hiding.” The surgery’s success rippled outward; soon, urologists, pediatric surgeons, and plastic surgeons worldwide adopted it. In 1984, Hari refined it further—the Asopa II, using a foreskin tube—cementing his name in textbooks as the father of modern hypospadias repair.

His innovations didn’t stop there. In the mid-1990s, tackling urethral strictures—another scourge of pain and infection—he devised the dorsal inlay urethroplasty, published in *Urology* in 2001. “It’s not just a fix,” he told his team during a grueling workshop, sweat beading on his brow, “it’s freedom. For the farmer who can’t work, the husband who can’t embrace his wife without fear.” Surgeons from Delhi to Detroit traveled to Agra to watch him operate, mesmerized by his precision and his post-op chats: “Tell me, how does it feel to breathe easy now?”

Life beyond the scalpel was no less rich. In 1991, Hari founded Asopa Hospital & Research Centre on Agra’s Gailana Road—a 100-bed haven blending cutting-edge care with compassion. It became a beacon, accredited for residencies in surgery and family medicine, training the next generation. He served as National President of the Association of Surgeons of India in 1996, Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England that same year, and Founder President of the International Society of Hypospadias and Intersex Disorders—later its Honorary Lifetime President. Awards poured in: the Col. Pandalai Oration in 1991, an honorary DSc from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University in 1995, and the crown jewel, the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award.

Yet, amid the accolades, Hari remained the boy from Agra’s streets—kind, unassuming, with a laugh that filled rooms. At home, with his devoted wife and children—son Ravi in Australia, daughter Archana in the United States—he was simply “Papa,” sharing meals of aloo parathas and stories of patients who’d become family. “Success isn’t medals, jaan,” he’d tell his wife over evening chai, “it’s the boy who thanks you with a hug years later.”

Even in retirement as Professor Emeritus at S.N. Medical College in 1989, Hari never stopped teaching. He ran DNB courses, mentored post-MS surgeons, and demonstrated his techniques at over 50 workshops worldwide. “Keep learning,” he’d urge young doctors, “because every patient carries a lesson wrapped in gratitude.”

On November 22, 2023—two years to the day before this telling—Hari Shankar Asopa slipped away at 91, in the home he loved in Agra. The world mourned: colleagues called him the “father of surgeons,” patients the “miracle man.” But in the end, as Ravi and Archana gathered for his rites, they remembered not the pioneer, but the father who’d say, “Life’s too short for half-healed hearts. Fix what you can, love what you mend.”

Dr. Asopa didn’t just save lives; he restored dignity, one gentle incision at a time. In Agra’s eternal shadow of the Taj, his legacy endures—a testament that true greatness lies not in glory, but in the quiet mending of the human spirit.

Prof. Hari Shankar Asopa graduated from S N Medical College, Agra and was in the faculty of his alma mater and later Professor and Head of Department of Surgery at MLB Medical College, Jhansi. There after he was Professor Emeritus at S N Medical College, Agra.
He is well known not only in Uttar Pradesh but all over the country and the world for his expertise in  the field of surgery and also as a humanitarian doctor. He is extremely sympathetic to poor and downtrodden people of this region and serves a large number of poor patients free of cost.
Born in July, 1932, he had a brilliant career, stood first in MBBS from Agra University which at that time included Agra, Gwalior and  Indore Medical Colleges. He received several medals including the Chancellors Medal and did his MS in Surgery (Agra), FRCS(England), FRCS(Edinburgh) all in the year 1964. He is a loved and respected teacher and has continued his passion for teaching by training Post MS Surgeons and runs a three year Post Graduate course of Diplomate National Board (DNB) in General Surgery and Family Medicine, accredited by National Board of Examinations of the Government of India.
He invented a one stage operation for Hypospadias, a congenital defect of penis and urethra in boys, one in every 250 – 300 boys are born with this defect. About forty thousand boys are born with this defect in India alone. This research was published in the Journal “International Surgery”  in June 1971.
This Procedure known as Asopa Operation, was soon being done all over the world by Urologists, Paediatric Surgeons, Plastic and General Surgeons. Asopa Procedure found place in Articles, International Journals, International Reference and Textbooks.               
In 1984 he published another operation for hypospadias titled “One Stage Repair of Hypospadias Using Foreskin Tube” which was a refinement of the original Asopa Operation and is called Asopa II Operation and later described in textbooks as Asopa Procedure 1990 Version.
 
An operation invented by Dr. Asopa in mid 1990’s for Stricture Urethra, published in the Journal “UROLOGY” in 2001 Elsevier Science Inc, Philadelphia, is being followed universally by Urologists worldwide and has made Urethral Stricture Surgery easy and safe to perform. It appears in Reference books and International journals. It has been popularized among Reconstructive Urologists in Europe and America as “Dorsal Inlay Urethroplasty” or “Asopa Technique”. Numerous articles have been written by Urologists from the University of Washington, USA,  Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK, Tanta University, Egypt, Nizam’s University of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Army Research & Referral Hospital, New Delhi, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, Center for Reconstructive Urethral Surgery, Arezzo, Italy, BYL Nair Hospital and Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai and several other Universities around the world recognizing this technique as a major advancement in Urethroplasty and its high success rate.
Yet another operation invented and published in 2002 in “The American Journal of Surgery” has made pancreatic surgery for cancer of pancreas safer.
Dr. Asopa has been  invited  to  give talks on  his operations in both national and international conferences. Lectures and films of his intricate operations are shown by other workers in international conferences and on websites. He has demonstrated these operations at workshops in over 50 institutions and pre conference workshops in India and abroad, where hundreds of General surgeons, Plastic Surgeons, Paediatric Surgeons and Urologists interact on close circuit television during the procedures. 
Dr. Asopa has been awarded many prizes, memberships and fellowships including Col. Pandalai Oration  in 1991, the most prestigious award of the Association of Surgeons of India.   He received  “Dr. B.C. Roy National Award” as Eminent Medical Teacher in 1991. 
 
 
He was again awarded “Dr. B.C. Roy National Award” as “Eminent Medical Man” for the year 1996, both by the then Presidents of India.  This award is given once a year to a medical man out of all medical faculty and disciplines in the country.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

— Read on asopahospital.in/about-prof-h-s-asopa/