US-INDIA GLOBAL REVIEW JUL-SEP 2020

31 US-INDIA GLOBAL REVIEW JULY-SEPTEMBER 2020 I n the world of high-flying pro- fessions, you won’t find many other unique personalities like the Andhra Pradesh-born physician Dr. Venkataramana Vijay, 54, now a cardio-thoracic and vascular surgeon in New York City, at the Mt. Sinai Hospital of Brooklyn and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He’s an alum of Sri Ventateswara University in Tirupati. Dr. Vijay is a man of many paths and missions in life. He’s a double Covid Warrior. Not just a surgeon, but also a Boeing 747 pilot, making multiple commercial trips back and forth every month from the United States to cities in Asia, primarily China, to bring back Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Every month, Dr. Vijay divides his time between wielding controls in a cockpit and handling a scalpel in an operating theatre. He flies nowadays through the month as he was drafted for the mission under an order by President Trump. Starting from July, he will go back to his normal schedule, which involves usually 18 days of flying beginning of the month, and then devoting himself to surgery the rest of the month. Dr. Venkataramana Vijay – Flying Surgeon PANDEMIC Dr. Venkataramana Vijay is a NewYork City-based cardio-thoracic surgeon at the Mt. Sinai Hospital, who also flies a Jumbo Jet from the United States to countries in Asia, and back, bringing in essential PPEs, to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Vijay By Sujeet Rajan