In the cardiac laboratories of Delhi, Dr. Tarlochan Singh Kler (often known as T.S. Kler) became a quiet pioneer who brought advanced heart-rhythm care to India. Born in Amargarh, Punjab, he graduated in medicine from Government Medical College, Patiala (Punjabi University) in 1976. He went on to complete his MD in General Medicine and DM in Cardiology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, in 1980 and 1983 respectively. Further training in the United Kingdom earned him the MRCP and later the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians; he is also a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Returning to India, he was among the founding doctors of Escorts Heart Institute. There he established the country’s first dedicated Electrophysiology department and launched radio-frequency ablation programmes. He was the first cardiologist in India to implant an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator), the first to implant CRT-P and CRT-D devices, and the first to perform His-bundle pacing in 2015. Over a career spanning more than four decades he has performed tens of thousands of coronary, renal, carotid and peripheral angioplasties while training hundreds of doctors across India and neighbouring countries.

Colleagues remember his calm focus in the catheter laboratory. “The heart’s rhythm is its language,” he would tell young cardiologists. “Learn to listen carefully, and you can restore its song.” He later served as Executive Director and Director of Cardiac Sciences at Fortis Escorts, Chairman of the Heart Institute at Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute, and Chairman of Fortis Heart and Vascular Institute. He has also held leadership roles at BLK-Max Heart & Vascular Institute and remains a founding figure of the Heart Rhythm Society of India.

In recognition of his pioneering contributions to interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 2005. From a young doctor from Punjab to a national leader who made life-saving rhythm devices and procedures available to Indian patients, Tarlochan Singh Kler’s career stands as a story of technical excellence, institutional building and a lifelong commitment to the beating heart.