The Surgeon Who Built a Hospital and Opened New Paths in Thoracic Surgery: The Story of Dr. Narendra Kumar Pandey

On 1 January 1951, in the quiet village of Bishnupura in Saran district of Bihar, a boy named Narendra Kumar Pandey was born to a village headmaster, Jagat Pandey, and his wife Vidya. The eldest of three children, he grew up with the simple values of hard work and education. He completed his MBBS at Patna Medical College in 1974 and briefly worked at a block hospital near Patna. Finding the limited scope of the work unsatisfying, he married Padma in 1975 and, the following year, set out for the United Kingdom to pursue advanced surgical training.

In Britain he re-did his internship, worked at several hospitals including Ashford, Aberystwyth and Barnstaple, and earned his FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1982 (later also becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow). He trained under distinguished surgeons and gained valuable experience in liver, pancreatic and minimal-access surgery before returning to India around 1984–85.

He joined the Escorts Heart Institute in Faridabad and rose over the years to become Executive Director. There he focused on thoracic surgery and pioneered the development of Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) in India—a minimally invasive technique that reduced the trauma of chest operations and sped recovery for patients. In 2005 (or around that period) he received the Dr. B.C. Roy National Award for this pioneering work.

Determined to create a centre that combined advanced technology with accessibility and affordability, he invested his life savings and founded the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Faridabad. The multi-specialty hospital opened in 2010 and has grown under his leadership as Chairman, Managing Director and Head of Surgery. His sons Anupam and Prashant, together with their wives, help run the institution, turning a personal vision into a family commitment to better healthcare in the National Capital Region.

In 2014 the Government of India conferred upon him the Padma Shri for his distinguished service in surgery. Other honours include the Betadine Achievement Award, the Distinguished Service Award of the Delhi Doctors Association, and an honorary Doctor of Science. He has also served as President of the Association of Surgeons of India and as an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

One evening, after a long day of surgery and administrative meetings, a young colleague asked him, “Sir, why leave a senior position at a well-known institute to build a hospital of your own?”

Dr. Narendra Kumar Pandey answered with the quiet conviction of a man who had travelled from a Bihar village to operating theatres in London and back again.

“The majority of our people still struggle for basic healthcare, let alone advanced technology,” he said. “We can keep making plans on paper, or we can build something real—where skill, modern methods like VATS, and compassion come together at a cost ordinary families can manage. That is the only way the work truly reaches those who need it most.”

And so the surgeon from Bishnupura who trained in Patna and Britain, who introduced minimally invasive thoracic surgery to India, and who founded a major hospital in Faridabad continues to stand for a simple ideal: that excellence in surgery must also mean access and dignity for the patient.