The Father of Interventional Cardiology in India

Born in 1954 in Moga, Punjab, to a bicycle mechanic’s family of modest means, Purshotam Lal overcame early hardships through sheer determination and a scholarship to study medicine at Government Medical College, Amritsar, where he topped his class. After graduating, he trained extensively in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, earning fellowships from the American College of Cardiology, the Royal College of Physicians (Canada), the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, and other prestigious bodies.

Returning to India, he pioneered more than twenty interventional cardiology procedures for the first time in the country—among them slow rotational angioplasty, coronary atherectomy, rotablator (diamond drilling of arteries), non-surgical closure of heart holes (ASD), and non-surgical aortic valve replacement (TAVI). In 1992 he performed the world’s first non-surgical ASD closure using a monodisc device; in 2004 he carried out one of the earliest transcatheter aortic valve implantations. He also developed innovative techniques such as left atrio-femoral bypass support for high-risk cases.

In 1997 he founded the Metro Group of Hospitals, beginning with the Metro Heart Institute in Noida, with the vision of providing advanced, affordable cardiac care to all, especially the poor and needy. The group has since grown into a multi-specialty network serving millions of patients.

For his extraordinary contributions he received the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award, the Padma Bhushan in 2003, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2009—India’s second-highest civilian honour. His achievements have been repeatedly recorded in the Limca Book of Records, and he has been honoured with lifetime achievement awards by the Times of India, Delhi Medical Association and other bodies.

Today, as Chairman of the Metro Group of Hospitals and a practising interventional cardiologist, Padma Vibhushan Dr. Purshotam Lal continues to innovate and serve. In the cath labs he helped establish and in the countless hearts restored without open surgery, his legacy endures—courageous innovation, compassionate care, and the unwavering belief that advanced treatment should reach every patient who needs it.