In the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in 1956, a restless, mischievous boy named Duvvur Nageshwar Reddy was born into a family of doctors. His father was a distinguished pathologist; his grandfather too had practised medicine. Yet young Nageshwar seemed determined to test every limit. He once set fire to the family garage while experimenting with petrol. Another time he placed his baby brother in the refrigerator “to protect him from the summer heat.” His parents, exhausted, sent him to boarding school.

“That boy will end up a mechanic at best,” his grandfather once sighed after Nageshwar failed Class X.

The words stung. Something shifted. The prankster became a student of fierce focus. He completed his MBBS from Kurnool Medical College, topping examinations that once seemed impossible. He earned his MD from Madras Medical College and then his DM in Gastroenterology from the prestigious Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh. Further training in Germany sharpened his skills in the still-young field of endoscopy.

Returning to India, he taught at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences and Guntur Medical College. But he saw a vast need unmet. “Nearly a third of our people suffer from digestive diseases,” he told colleagues, “yet we have no dedicated centre of excellence. Someone has to build it.”

In 1994 he founded the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in Hyderabad. What began as a specialised clinic grew into the world’s largest gastroenterology hospital. Under his leadership it became a global referral centre for complex endoscopic procedures. He pioneered techniques that replaced major surgery with minimally invasive methods, invented the NAGI stent, and trained generations of doctors from around the world.

A patient once asked him after a life-saving procedure, “Doctor, how do you stay so calm when others have given up?”

Nageshwar smiled. “Because every life deserves a second chance—and science, when guided by care, can give it.”

Recognition followed steadily. The Dr. B.C. Roy Award in 1995. The Padma Shri in 2002. The Padma Bhushan in 2016. International honours including the Master Endoscopist Award and the Rudolf V. Schindler Award—the highest in gastrointestinal endoscopy. In 2025 he became the first Indian doctor to receive all three Padma awards when the nation conferred upon him the Padma Vibhushan.

Today, as Chairman of AIG Hospitals, Dr. D. Nageshwar Reddy continues to innovate, teach and heal. From a boy once written off as a troublemaker to a pioneer who placed India at the forefront of digestive care, his journey remains a living reminder that curiosity, when channelled with discipline and compassion, can transform not only a life but an entire field of medicine.