By Arun K Singh, MD
A close friend needed open heart surgery a few years ago, and she was thrilled (and relieved) when Dr Arun Singh accepted her as a patient. She was actually among over 15,000 patients who put their hearts into Dr Singh's hands. By the time he retired from RI Hospital in 2016, Dr Singh was a legend. But his early life gave little clue to the career to which he would one day aspire.
A physically challenged, poor boy in India, Arun also had to overcome a learning disability. He was born in rural India in 1944. His father was well-educated (though sometimes unemployed), but his maternal grandfather had been a surgeon. "Nana" was educated in the UK and found his pro-UK views were not always popular in newly free India. Arun, who suffered two accidents resulting in broken limbs, followed by years of in-home, makeshift rehab, as well as learning issues related to dyslexia, was not a typical pre-Med student. But his mother and grandmother believed in him and encouraged him to follow his heart. Learning the basics at Darbhanga Medical College, he was encouraged to seek admission to a residence program in the US. He was eventually accepted into a program at Columbia, working at 3 different NYC hospitals (at one of which a young Jewish nurse, Barbara Schacter, caught his eye and became Arun's wife). Finishing the program at Columbia, Arun was then accepted to a 2-year fellowship at RIH, followed by a 1-year program at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, where Arun honed his cardiac surgical skills. He was then offered positions at both Harvard and Brown/RIH. Having established a working relationship at RIH, Arun chose that offer, only to learn afterward that funding was withdrawn. But luckily for RIH, he stuck with it, supporting himself through his own burgeoning practice, and built up the new cardiothoracic dept at RIH.
Dr Singh gives a heart-wrenching account of his struggles, living in a developing country, coming to the US as a dark-skinned immigrant, arriving at his first US post with fifty cents in his pocket, and residing at the YMCA at just about every new position, because it was all he could afford. Humble and honest about his struggles, whether physical, academic, or recalling a patient (very few) who did not survive surgery. After his last operation, he reflects, "It had gone well. The surgery. The career. And, on balance, the life."
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