Dr Kirpal Chugh, India’s father of nephrology, dies at 85

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 17

Dr Kirpal Singh Chugh, fondly called father of nephrology in India, passed away on Sunday. He was 85.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Belonging to Patti in Tarn Taran, he was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2000.

Dr Chugh, a professor emeritus and former head of Nephrology Department at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh,  was diagnosed with blood cancer (multiple myeloma) around two years back.

Read: Physician who brought renal care to India

Nephrologist Chugh gets Bhishma Pitamah Award

He would often say after doing his MBBS from Government Medical College, Patiala, at 23, that he wanted to do his MD thesis in chronic kidney disease.

But it was not a specialty recognised by the researchers. He was rejected thrice.

Finally a dean of Panjab University said, “This boy is mad, let him do whatever he wants to do.”

Then he wrote his seminal work on nephrology in 1958, which he would tell “was the first systematic study in the field of kidney diseases in India.

And in 1961, it enabled him to become the first “qualified” nephrologist in the country.

Dr Chugh is fondly called father of nephrology in India for single handedly first separating this discipline from medicine and then developing this into super-specialty in the country.

He produced a total 72 DM (Doctorate in Medicine) in his career of three decades at PGIMER before he retired in 1993. Many of them are now world famous in the field of nephrology.

Later he set up the first Department of Nephrology at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, and established the first nephrology super-specialty training programme in 1969. 

He has trained and mentored several generations of nephrologists who are now leaders in nephrology in India and many parts of the world.

Earlier, the National Kidney Foundation of USA has considered Dr Chugh’s contributions to the renal community in India as “most outstanding” and the International Society of Nephrology has included him amongst the first 50 legends in Nephrology world over. He is the first Indian to receive the Bywaters Award by the International Society of Nephrology (ISN).

His both sons, Dr Suman Chugh, a nephrologist, and Dr Sumeet Chugh, a cardiologist, are settled in the US.

His cremation will be held at 12 pm tomorrow at the cremation ground in Sector 25, Chandigarh.