Mumbai: Doctor OP Kapoor (90), known as the ‘doctor of doctors’, passed away in Mumbai on Friday. His last rites were performed this afternoon at the crematorium in Dadar.
Dr Kapoor is survived by wife Putli Devi and two sons Shashi Kapoor and Dr. Shammi Kapoor. Dr. OP Kapoor was also the family doctor of Bollywood’s famous Kapoor family.
His initiative to deliver free lectures to medical students for 65 years by Dr. OP Kapoor has also been recorded in the Limca Book of World Records. In 1974, Kapoor was awarded a fellowship at the Royal College, Edinburgh. In 1982, Dr.Kapoor was awarded the prestigious Dr. BC Roy National Award in the field of medicine by the then President for his outstanding work in the field of medicine. Dr. Kapoor’s speech at the Association of Gastroenterology and Warner Gastroenterology in 1982 caught everyone’s attention. He has delivered lectures for doctors in almost 100 cities of India. He has also addressed doctors in UK and USA.
He used to take monsoon series for doctors at Matoshree Birla Hall in Mumbai. It used to be a six-hour marathon lecture. He never taught students from books. His lectures used to be hilarious lectures, so halls would fill up during his lectures. He always said that our country needs more general practitioners, our emphasis is on making specialist doctors. Dr. Kapoor attended lectures by doctors from India as well as UK and USA.
Dr. Kapoor has written 12 books. Apart from this, he has also worked in Jaslok Hospital and Bombay Hospital. He taught doctors for free throughout his life. His lectures used to be a marathon. He was an expert in teaching difficult subjects in the field of medicine in a simple way. Until recently, he used to organize special lectures for 1200 MBBS final year students of all medical colleges in Mumbai at Birla Matoshree Auditorium. He retired from Grant Medical College Hospital in 1986 after more than 33 years of service but never left teaching.
He conducted several courses for general practitioners across India, where he traveled at his own expense. He has delivered lectures in every city of India from Kashmir to Kerala and from Kutch to Odisha. He has trained more than 20 thousand student doctors across India.