Meet Your Physician - Dr. Surendra Purohit

COVINGTON - Covington general and vascular surgeon Surendra Purohit MD continues to advance surgical methods on the Northshore. The native of India was the first local surgeon to place a pacemaker, perform vascular surgery and use St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s da Vinci Si robot for single-site gallbladder surgery.

Calm and unassuming, Dr. Purohit arrives early for morning surgeries, but he is never rushed when patients or medical staff have questions for him, says Mary Krentel, STPH director of surgery.

“He commands respects,” Krentel says.

Dr. Purohit describes his embrace of new surgical technology as something he enjoys that also benefits patients.

“I’ve devoted my life to caring for patients,” he says.

Dr. Purohit was a physician by age 19, with additional training in internal medicine by 21. He was the first physician in a family of central India industrialists whose own father worked until age 98. A yearning to advance his medical expertise prompted a move to England in his early 20s for training in accident trauma and orthopedics.

Next he moved to Boston to study general and vascular surgery at the University of Massachusetts. He settled on the Northshore in the ‘70s with his wife and three sons.

His international training has earned him unusual professional credentials: Dr. Purohit is licensed to practice medicine in the United States, India, England and, by virtue of tied to the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

“I enjoy my patients and my family and my co-workers,” he said. “What more could you have?”

###

A full-service acute care facility committed to providing world-class healthcare and the latest technology, St. Tammany Parish Hospital delivers today’s life-improving procedures with the utmost care to area residents with emphasis on wellness, preventive care and disease management close to home. STPH is a self-supporting not-for-profit community hospital; it receives no tax funding. STPH.org