Dr. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra retiring from Service Today

ONI Bureau: An era will come to an end, as Dr. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra (Left), Chief of Neurosciences Centre at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS, New Delhi) will be retiring today after 42 years in service.

He will be succeeded by Dr. Shashank Sharad Kale (Right). Dr. Mahapatra led one of the most successful separation surgeries in the world when he and his team successfuly separated conjoined twins from Kandhamal (Odisha) – Jaga and Kalia.

Dr. Ashok Mahapatra completed MBBS from MKCG Medical College, Berhampur in 1975. He did M.S. (Surgery) from AIIMS, New Delhi in 1979 and M.Ch. (Neurosurgery) in 1982. He also passed out in DNB (Neurosurgery) from National Board of Examination in 1983.

He served as the Director of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose AIIMS in Bhubaneswar from 2012 till 2016. He was one of the founding Directors of AIIMS, BBSR.

He won several awards including Gold Medal in Pharmacology, Dr. Jeo V. Desa Gold Medal for Research in Neuro-Otology, Membership of National Academy of Medical Sciences, Dr. B.C. Roy National Award – 2008 (for the year 2007) on the category of Eminent Medical Teacher, Bharat Nirman Award by Governor of Odisha,

His operational areas included paediatric neurosurgery, head injury and skull base surgery, among others.