In 1937, in Andhra Pradesh, a boy named Chittoor Mohammed Habeebullah was born. He earned his MBBS from Guntur Medical College in 1958, his MD in General Medicine from Andhra Medical College in 1963, and in 1972 became one of the earliest Indians to obtain the DM in Gastroenterology from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh.

He returned to Hyderabad and joined Osmania Medical College. From 1975 to 1992 he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology at Osmania Medical College and Osmania General Hospital, transforming it into a leading centre for clinical care, teaching and research in the specialty. Later he became Principal of the college, Director of Medical Education for the Government of Andhra Pradesh, and Director of the Centre for Liver Research and Diagnostics at the Deccan College of Medical Sciences.

One evening a young doctor asked him, “Sir, why devote so much energy to building a department and research when private practice would be easier?”

Habeebullah answered quietly, “Because the liver and the digestive system fail silently for thousands of our people. If we create the knowledge and the facilities here, patients will not have to suffer without hope.”

He pioneered work in hepatocyte transplantation, artificial liver support, stem-cell approaches and molecular diagnostics for liver diseases. He published widely, served as President of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology and the Indian Society for the Study of the Liver, and mentored a generation of specialists. In 1997 he received the Khwarizmi International Award from Iran for medical research. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 2001.

When colleagues congratulated him he only said, “This honour belongs to every patient who trusted us with their health and to every student who chose to stay and advance the field.”

On 10 July 2010, at the age of seventy-three, Dr. Chittoor Mohammed Habeebullah passed away after a cardiac arrest. Yet the department he built, the research centre he founded and the doctors he trained continue his quiet legacy:

“Master the specialty thoroughly. Build institutions that serve the many. And never stop seeking new ways to heal the organs that sustain life.”