“I laid the foundation of GBLU in 2003 in memory of my beloved brother late Gyan Burman, to serve as a corpus for liver surgeons. It gives me immense pleasure to add my key messaging to the audit report of GBLU on the completion of 20 years.”
Gyan Burman: His Life and Work
Gyan Burman was the eldest of three brothers. Focused and hard-working, he set a standard that his siblings strived to meet. Schooled at St Paul’s in Darjeeling, he spent a few months in St Xavier’s College in Calcutta before moving to the USA to study pharmacology and science at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.
He returned with his degree in 1966, and my uncle, P.C. Burman, immediately began training him to manage production at the Dabur factory in Calcutta. It took him less than a year to take complete charge of the factory.
He enjoyed his social and club life in Calcutta, but nothing could prevent him from being at work by 8 a.m. every morning. He died in 2001 and the Gyan Burman Liver Unit (GBLU) was established in his memory at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi. Twenty two years have passed since the GBLU was started under the able guidance and leadership of Dr Samiran Nundy and I am pleased to see that we have accomplished whatever we set out to do.
During the past twenty years, the department has trained 135 Indian doctors from various states, from Kerala to Kashmir. International Fellows include doctors from Kenya, Mexico, Fiji, Turkmenistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Greece and Pakistan. The department has rented and furnished a flat for Fellows who come from outside Delhi. Besides training doctors from all over the world, we have published books, funded research papers, sponsored doctors for conferences. We have organized eight orations by eminent doctors from the world over, appreciated by the management of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. The department has published a number of books including 25 Annual Audits of the Department, Liver Transplantation in India, 10 years of SGLT, Residents’ Manual and Liver Transplant Handbook for Patients. Our name is well known and our efforts have borne results. Our family is proud of the achievements of the Unit and considers it a worthy memorial to a well- loved and respected man. I congratulate Dr Nundy and his team and wish them success.