DR. WHO?
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
ASHIMA GUPTA, MD
Aaron Burch
B
ecoming a physician often runs in the family. For Dr. Ashima Gupta, her career in pediatric ophthalmology was both
destiny and chance.
taking out the shrapnel and I thought that was so cool. After that,
whenever he had an interesting consult he’d call me, and I started
becoming more interested in the field.
Her father, Dr. Sushil Kumar, was an ophthalmologist in India
before moving to North America with his wife, Achhra, when
Ashima was just an infant. Three of Dr. Gupta’s four uncles were
physicians, older cousins were going to medical school, and her
younger brother, Rishi, would pursue a career in ophthalmology
much as she did. For a long time however, it appeared her interest
in medicine might take another path.
Although her career in medicine took a turn here and there, Dr.
Gupta was interested in helping people from a young age. Growing
up, she attended the Hindu Heritage Summer Camp through her
teenage years, becoming a junior counselor at age 16. Located in
the Pocono Mountains in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, the camp
provided first generation Indian immigrants the opportunity to
make friends of similar backgrounds and learn how to balance the
worlds of both cultures.
“I spent a lot of time growing up in an ophthalmology office, so
I only really knew about medicine. My parents didn’t say I had to
be a doctor, but in the back of my mind I knew,” said Dr. Gupta,
whose first choice was actually general pediatrics.
“As a child, I remember simply liking ophthalmology because my
father would bring home gifts given by patients grateful for helping
them. After a cataract surgery, they would build him something or
paint him an art piece. I thought, ‘Wow, what a great job. You get
so many presents in ophthalmology.’”
When Dr. Gupta had the chance to make her pediatric rotations,
she discovered it wasn’t for her after all. “The sick children were not
happy to see me, and so I had to interact more with the parents. I
didn’t enjoy that because I wanted to interact more with the children.
It just wasn’t my cup of tea.”
It wasn’t until her third year of medical school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. that Dr. Gupta discovered
her kinship with ophthalmology after all.
“There were shootings at the Capitol one night, it must have been
1998. I had a good friend, Suri Appa, who was a resident while I
was a medical student. He was on call that night while I was rotating in the emergency room. There was a woman, a bystander, who
had shrapnel in her cheek very near her eye. I got to assist Suri in
“There was a lot of learning different prayers and philosophy,
and incorporating those in your daily life. It was actually run by
non-Indian Swamis. But, it was also a regular camp. There were
dances, days at the lake and nights camping out in the woods. It
was one of the best parts of growing up,” Dr. Gupta said.
One summer while she was there, another counselor intrigued
everyone by bringing up “The City of Joy,” a book by Dominique
Lapierre about the slums of Kolkata, India. Dr. Gupta and her
friends sought out the book and were gripped by the stories from
within the city. They made it their mission to visit the Missionaries
of Charity and volunteer to help.
“On the back of the book, it had the address for the Missionaries
of Charity. We wrote letters asking if we could come, but never got
a response. So we decided just to go,” said Dr. Gupta. “I don’t know
how our parents let us go but they did. We all bought tickets and
left for six weeks.”
The Missionaries of Charity is an organization which was founded
by Mother Theresa in 1950. The group has several centers throughout
the city of Kolkata. Dr. Gupta and her friends began working at the
Missionaries’ orphanage, Shishu Bhavan, when they arrived in the
summer of 1992 after their freshman year of college.
(continued on page 30)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’s member spotlight section, Dr. Who? In the interest of simply
getting to know each other as a society of colleagues, we’ll be highlighting random GLMS physicians on a
regular basis. If you would like to recommend any GLMS physician member to the Editorial Board for this
section, please e-mail [email protected] or call him at 736-6338.
APRIL 2016
29