In the salt-rich town of Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district, a boy named Bal Krishna Goyal was born on 19 November 1935. One day he watched a man from his village collapse and die of a sudden heart attack. The helplessness of that moment stayed with him. From then on he decided that he would devote his life to the heart—understanding it, treating it, and saving lives that might otherwise be lost in an instant.

He trained as a cardiologist and rose steadily through the ranks of Mumbai’s great medical institutions. For twenty-five years he served as Director-Professor of Cardiology at the JJ Group of Hospitals and Grant Medical College. Later he became Honorary Dean and Chief Cardiologist at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences, a position he held with distinction for decades. He was appointed Professor Emeritus of Cardiology at Grant Medical College for life, and he served on the Executive Council and Senate of the University of Bombay as well as on national bodies such as the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare and the Medical Council of India.

Dr. Goyal’s reputation crossed oceans. He became the only cardiologist outside the United States to be named Honorary Consultant Cardiologist to the world-famous Texas Heart Institute in Houston. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Alabama and a visiting cardiologist at the Ochsner Heart Institute in New Orleans. In India he served as honorary cardiologist to the Armed Forces, to governors, chief ministers and presidents. When former President Shankar Dayal Sharma needed care, it was Goyal who was summoned from Mumbai to stay by his side.

Known for his trademark tuxedo and bow tie, he cut a distinctive figure in the corridors of Bombay Hospital. Yet patients remembered him less for his style than for the calm reassurance he gave them. One long-time patient later recalled, “He would sit beside the bed, hold your hand, and say, ‘Your heart is strong enough to fight. We will fight with it.’ Suddenly the fear became lighter.”

He performed thousands of free life-saving procedures for the poor and founded a trust in his name to continue that work. He wrote a book titled Heart Talk and published more than fifty papers in national and international journals. Under his chairmanship the Haffkine Institute developed indigenous polio vaccines that received WHO approval.

The nation recognised his service with its highest civilian honours: the Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 1990, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2005. In 1980 he was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai, following the legendary actor Dilip Kumar and preceding Sunil Dutt.

On 20 February 2018, at the age of eighty-two, Dr. Bal Krishna Goyal himself suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away in Mumbai. In the history of Indian cardiology he remains remembered as a physician of rare clinical instinct, a teacher who trained generations of specialists, and a man who combined elegance with deep compassion. The hearts he saved and the standards he set continue to beat long after he left the wards.