VIJAYAWADA: With over four decades in service and more than 1.5 lakh surgeries to his credit, most of which were performed pro bono, Dr Syama Prasad Piligam has rightfully gained the title of ‘A Master Surgeon in love with Humanity’.
From 1977, the year when Dr Syama Prasad began working, he has rendered his services as an individual as well as a government servant. He has performed around 50,000 paediatric surgeries free of cost at a hospital run by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust in Puttaparthi.
A member of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and vice-chancellor of the one and only health varsity in the State, Dr YSR University of Health Sciences, Dr Syama Prasad has played a vital role along with the State government in getting the Centre’s approval to add 630 additional PG medical seats.
Dr Syama Prasad was born in Nellore’s Kovur village in 1954. He said his father’s thoughts inspired him, while the words of his mother, Kanthamma, supported him and helping him succeed in life. His father, Dr P Sundaraiah was a noted orthopaedic surgeon and retired Director of Medical Education. He named his son after Shyama Prasad Mukharjee, the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
He completed his schooling as well as the college education in Visakhapatnam. He studied MBBS and MS at Sri Venkateswara Medical College in Tirupati and completed his one-year Super Specialty Training at Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. He studied MCh Pediatric Surgery at Andhra Medical College and research in Andhra University.
From 1972, the year he started MBBS, to 2022, the year he completed PhD, the 68-year-old has completed several courses related to medicine and technology.His wife Lakshmi Rajyam is a retired gynaecologist, son is an orthopaedic surgeon, daughter-in-law an anaesthetist, daughter is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, son-in-law is an interventional radiologist, his brother Dr Gopi Krishna is an ophthalmologist, sisters Dr P Mythili and Dr B Shoba Devi are also general surgeons. Dr Syama Prasad is renowned for removing cancerous tumours and has performed over 20,000 breast cancer surgeries. He keeps the pictures of peculiar cases of his career to teach his students.
A close aide of former Chief Minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Dr Syama Prasad recalled YSR’s role in tripling wages and salaries of doctors and opined that the move has encouraged several doctors to apply for government service. He recollected the days when he and YSR started Junior Doctors’ Association together at SV University.
He has served as the State vice-president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the President of the AP State Government Doctors’ Association.He shifted focus to developing government medical colleges after taking over as vice-chancellor of Dr YSR University of Health Sciences. He is also striving to get special recognition to the Medical varsity during his tenure.
He has also received the ‘Most Dedicated Vice-Chancellor Award’ for leadership in education (Golden AIM) along with several lifetime achievement awards.One of his disciples Dr Aravind Yadav wrote a biography on Dr Syama Prasad titled ‘A Master Surgeon in love with Humanity’. He is waiting for CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s appointment for releasing of the book.