In the quiet town of Mavelikkara in Kerala, a young boy named Marthanda Varma Sankaran Valiathan grew up listening to stories of healing and duty. Born on 24 May 1934 into a family with deep roots in the old Travancore region, he carried both curiosity and a sense of service. After earning his MBBS from the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram, he set out for advanced training—first at the University of Liverpool, where he gained his surgical fellowship and Master’s degree, and later at leading centres in the United States, including Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and George Washington University Hospitals. There he specialised in cardiac and thoracic surgery and began exploring the possibilities of medical devices.

When he returned to India, an invitation from Kerala’s then Chief Minister brought him to Thiruvananthapuram. He took charge of what would become the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST). As its founder-director from the late 1970s until 1994, he built not only a hospital of excellence but also a research centre that could create affordable technology for Indian patients. One of his proudest achievements was the indigenous TTK-Chitra mechanical heart valve. After years of careful work, he and his team implanted the first one in 1990. “A valve that works for our people, made here, at a cost they can bear—that is real progress,” he once told a young colleague. The low-cost device went on to help countless patients with rheumatic heart disease.

He later became the first Vice-Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, President of the Indian National Science Academy, and a National Research Professor. In his later years he turned with equal passion to Ayurveda, studying the classical texts under traditional scholars and writing The Legacy of Charaka, The Legacy of Sushruta and The Legacy of Vagbhata. He saw no conflict between modern surgery and ancient wisdom; both, he believed, served the same goal of healing.

The nation honoured him with the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan in 1990, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2005. France named him Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. Colleagues remember a soft-spoken man of quiet determination who never sought the spotlight yet left institutions and ideas that continue to serve India.

Dr. M.S. Valiathan passed away on 17 July 2024 in Manipal at the age of 90. From a Kerala boy drawn to medicine to the cardiac surgeon who gave India its own heart valve and later bridged modern science with Ayurveda, his life remains a story of skill, vision and deep respect for both the new and the old.