Dr Sanjay Gupta: The Multiple-Award Winning Neurosurgeon Fervently Sharing Life-Saving Information
Emmy-award winning CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and Emory Clinic Neurosurgeon, Dr Sanjay Gupta has been heavily invested in medicine and documenting his thoughts about public health since he was in high school.
He was accepted into an eight-year medical program called ‘Inteflex’ at the University of Michigan in his final year of high school. This automatically secured him a spot in the university’s medical school. In the late 1980s, during his undergraduate studies, he wrote for the university’s newspaper and The Economist, reporting on health care issues in the United States and other countries.
His articles caught the attention of Bill and Hillary Clinton and got Gupta a White House Fellowship, which allowed him to work as a special adviser to Hillary Clinton. While he was in the White House, he helped the first lady write speeches on medicine and health care issues. He then returned to the University of Michigan where he completed his medical degree in neurosurgery and subsequently worked as a fellow at the university’s medical centre and later as a fellow at the University of Tennessee.
He met the chief executive officer of CNN, Tom Johnson while he worked as a special adviser in the White House. Tom invited Gupta to join the network’s medical news team in 2001, which he accepted and immediately got to work. Sanjay Gupta has reported some of the biggest natural disasters and war stories from the affected areas. Some of his coverage includes the 2001 9/11 attacks in New York City, the Sri Lanka tsunami of 2004, 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and Charity Hospital coverage, the 2014 deadly Ebola Outbreak in Conakry, Guinea, the breakdown in the medical infrastructure of Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017, and more recently, the coronavirus.
Dr Sanjay Gupta has also embedded with both the US Navy (in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq) and the US Army (in 2009 on life-saving rescue missions in Afghanistan) to report stories live from the base and help save the lives of military men. He has received about 5 Emmys and contributed to multiple award-winning shows on CNN for his excellent reporting style.
Since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak started, Gupta has worked hard to report updates on the issues, give insightful opinions and thoughts, and share tips of how people can stay safe. He has been a frequent contributor to numerous CNN shows covering the crisis, as well as hosting a weekly Town Hall with Anderson Cooper.
In addition to his work for CNN, Gupta is an associate professor of neurosurgery at Emory University Hospital and associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He serves as a diplomate of the American Board of Neurosurgery. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, while also contributing to the CBS newsmagazine ‘60 Minutes’ and serving as an executive producer for the HBO Documentary Unit.
He is the author of three New York Times best-selling books, ‘Chasing Life’ (2007), ‘Cheating Death’ (2009) and ‘Monday Mornings’ (2012). His fourth book, ‘Keep Sharp: Building a Better Brain’ is set to be published later this year.
He has also been named one of PEOPLE magazine’s ‘Sexiest Men Alive’, a ‘pop culture icon’ by USA Today and one of the ‘Ten Most Influential Celebrities’ by Forbes Magazine. He has won several awards for his humanitarian efforts and the John F. Kennedy University Laureate award.
Writer: Mofijesusewa Samuel
Designer: Kume Akpubi
