The Steward of Critical Care

Born on 23 March 1954 in the village of Majra Gurdas in Rewari district, Haryana, Brijendra Kumar Rao graduated MBBS and completed his MD in Anaesthesiology from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi. He married his classmate, Dr. Manju Mehra.

In 1983 he joined Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, as a junior consultant in anaesthesiology. Over the years he rose steadily through the ranks, becoming instrumental in establishing and strengthening the specialty of Critical Care Medicine at the hospital. He eventually headed the Department of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesiology, and in 2006 assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of Management of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, one of India’s leading multi-specialty tertiary-care institutions.

A respected teacher, guide and researcher in critical care, he received an international fellowship from the American Respiratory Care Foundation and the American Association for Respiratory Care. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India, as Chairman of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), and as Chairman of the ASSOCHAM National Council on Healthcare and Hospitals. He is a former President of the Indian Chapter of the International Trauma Anaesthesia and Critical Care Society.

In recognition of his contributions to medical science and hospital administration, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 2009.

Today, as a senior leader at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and a guiding voice in Indian healthcare accreditation and critical care, Padma Bhushan Dr. Brijendra Kumar Rao continues to shape standards of intensive care and institutional excellence. In the intensive-care units he helped build and in the many lives stabilised under his watch, his legacy endures—steady leadership, clinical skill, and an unwavering commitment to saving the critically ill.