An Indian-American neurosurgeon has donated about $ 20 million, from his personal fortune, to build health facilities in his native village in Kerala. Dr Kumar Bahuleyan, born in a poor Dalit family in Chemmanakary, moved to the US where he made millions as a neurosurgeon and lived a lavish life, which included a Rolls-Royce, five Mercedes-Benz cars and an airplane.

But the 81-year-old’s story took an interesting turn when he decided to donate his fortune to establish a neurosurgery hospital, a health clinic and a spa resort in Chemmanakary.

“I was born with nothing. I was educated by the people of that village, and this is what I owe to them,” Bahuleyan said recently in Buffalo, where he has lived since 1973. “I’m in a state of eternal nirvana,” he said. “I have nothing else to achieve in life. My goal was to help my people. I can die any time as a happy man”. Those who know him are moved by Bahuleyan’s spirit and energy.

Bahuleyan was in private practice and served as a clinical associate professor in neurosurgery at the University at Buffalo before retiring in 1999. He set up the Bahuleyan Charitable Foundation, which built a clinic in India for young children and pregnant women in 1993. It also installed toilets, roads and water supply for the villagers.

Bahuleyan’s foundation built the Indo-American Hospital Brain and Spine Centre in 1996, starting with 80 beds. To fund the efforts, the Foundation in 2004 opened the Kalathil Health Resorts, offering luxury rooms, health spas and exercise rooms. Bahuleyan and his pathologist wife Indira Kartha now spend half the year in Buffalo and the other half in India, where Bahuleyan oversees his Foundation, moves around on a bicycle and still performs surgery almost daily.

... contd.