The Surgeon Who Gave Limbs and Hope: The Story of Prof. Balu Sankaran

On 4 September 1926, in a physician’s family in Tamil Nadu (often associated with Chennai or Tuticorin), Balu Sankaran was born. Medicine ran in his blood. He studied at Stanley Medical College in Madras and graduated in 1948 with an astonishing seventeen prizes—a record that stood for years. Ambition and excellence then carried him overseas. He trained in orthopaedic surgery at the prestigious Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in the United States and became the first Indian to pass the FRCS (Canada) in orthopaedics. Further experience followed at the Manchester Royal Infirmary in the United Kingdom, where he worked with pioneers including Sir John Charnley.

Offers of high-paying positions abroad came his way, but the call of home was stronger. He returned to India and, after a brief teaching stint, joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in 1956 as Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. He rose steadily, becoming Associate Professor, and later moved to Maulana Azad Medical College as Professor. From 1970 to 1978 he served as Director of the Central Institute of Orthopaedics at Safdarjung Hospital.

The 1971 Bangladesh war brought a flood of severely injured soldiers and civilians to Indian hospitals. At Safdarjung, Sankaran organised trauma care and rehabilitation on an unprecedented scale. The experience of so many amputees crystallised a larger vision. In 1972 he played a central role in establishing the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) at Kanpur and became its chairman. Three years later he helped found the National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (later NIRTAR) at Olatpur near Bhubaneswar. Under his guidance a network of peripheral rehabilitation centres grew across the country. He worked tirelessly on reconstructive surgery for leprosy patients and children left disabled by polio, transforming the lives of thousands who might otherwise have remained dependent or discarded.

His reputation as both a brilliant surgeon and a compassionate healer brought him patients from every walk of life. Former Presidents Zakir Husain, V.V. Giri, R. Venkataraman and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai, sought his care. Yet colleagues and patients alike remembered that the poorest were never turned away. He and his wife Sukanya (Sue) kept an open house in Delhi where students, young doctors and the needy were always welcome.

In 1981 the World Health Organization appointed him a director in Geneva, a post he held until 1987. On returning to India he continued as Professor Emeritus at St. Stephen’s Hospital in Delhi, establishing specialised wards for polio and cerebral palsy patients and offering free service for more than a decade. He also chaired the Rehabilitation Council of India from 1992 to 1994 and later advised on postgraduate medical education.

The nation recognised his work early: the Padma Shri in 1972 for his trauma and rehabilitation services during and after the 1971 war. In 2007 he received the higher honour of the Padma Vibhushan for his lifetime contribution to medicine and rehabilitation.

Prof. Balu Sankaran passed away on 20 June 2012 in Chennai after a brief illness, at the age of eighty-five. He left behind his wife, a son and two daughters, and a lasting institutional legacy—ALIMCO, rehabilitation centres, trained surgeons, and the quiet dignity restored to countless people who had lost limbs or mobility. In the history of Indian orthopaedics and rehabilitation he stands as a foundational figure: a surgeon of rare skill who never forgot that the true measure of medicine is the hope it returns to ordinary lives.