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Books Where is God Not?: An American Surgeon in India | ||
Forrest Cary Eggleston (September 28, 1920 to Nov 7, 2016) is an American surgeon who trained 101 residents at Christian Medical College Ludhiana in India.
Biography
Eggleston is an alumnus of Princeton University, and passed his MD in 1945 from Cornell University Medical College. He then trained first in general surgery and then in cardio-thoracic surgery. He worked in different hospitals in New York till December 1953 and then moved to India.
He moved to India to work as a missionary training doctors in the field of surgery. It was his calling from God he would say. He left his career and prospects back home in US and selflessly worked for the poor. If he had stayed home he would have had a lucrative and successful career. But he chose to do the greater good.
He first worked in a small town in Himachal for a few years. Then he moved to Christian Medical College, Ludhiana as the head of surgery department and spent the rest of his 33 years in India over there. Ludhiana was a small town in those days. He developed the department of general surgery and cardio-thoracic surgery and trained more than 101 surgeons. Many of those are still serving in various rural hospitals in India and abroad. Dr Eggleston introduced the American residency system of training young surgeons in India
Eggleston received the Woodrow Wilson award from Princeton University in 2000
His work and experiences are summarised in his book Christian Medical College, Ludhiana: A 33 Year Experience 1953-1986 : a Personal Perspective
Eggleston was the founder president of the Northern Chapter of Association of surgeons of India. Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India, has dedicated a library to his name:
He was the director of Christian Medical College and Hospital from 1982 to 1986. He retired after holding this highest office in the medical college and went back home to USA. http://cmcludhiana.in/cmc_2014/directors-office/
He later came back in the year 1995 for the centenary celebrations of CMC and was impressed at the developments that had taken place. The people he had taught had now become administrators and continued to take CMC in the glorious path he had lead. He is still loved by all his residents and other staff members.