Dr. Rajinder Chhokar receives St. Francis Hospital's Butler Award
Humorist Dave Barry entertains audience
By TIM CHITWOOD
tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com
Rajinder Chhokar was a pioneer: She was Columbus' first female cardiologist, who in 32 years of practice pushed for new procedures and improved care.
She and Dr. Gordon Miller were the first Columbus physicians to employ the angioplasty procedure at St. Francis Hospital.
In 2001 she became the first female president of the Georgia Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage.
For her service and innovation, she was honored Tuesday night by the St. Francis Hospital Board of Trustees and St. Francis Foundation, which presented her the Dr. Clarence C. Butler Service and Leadership Award.
In accepting the award, Chhokar spoke of traveling to Emory hospital in Atlanta in 1982 to learn how to perform a balloon angioplasty, before she conducted hundreds of the procedures in a single year.
"So many lives saved, so many lives made better," she said of the procedures cardiologists have conducted here since.
She drew laughter while talking
about first coming to Columbus: "People didn't speak English here; they spoke Southern," she said. "I still don't know what 'might could' means, or why people are going to 'holler' at me."
In closing, she thanked her patients for their friendship and trust, and said: "Now I have to tell you that I 'might could' stay here forever."
Among Chhokar's achievements were serving as the hospital's chief of staff in 2011 and 2012, and as chief of cardiology for more than 10 years.
She was on the St. Francis Foundation Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2005, and on the St. Francis Hospital Board of Trustees from 2008 to 2014.
The black-tie banquet at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center featured humorist and author Dave Barry, who talked about living in Miami -- "I moved there in 1986 from the United States" -- a city that some people describe as violent. "We want to track those people down and kill them," he said.
He said the city has a new tourism slogan: "Come Back to Miami -- We Weren't Shooting at You."
He spoke of health care, and his view as a patient.
Of the preparation for a colonoscopy, he said you're given a laxative "so powerful your bowels travel into the future and expel food you haven't eaten yet."
On the topic of aging, the 67-year-old said that once you hit 60, you can't remember nouns, and wind up saying "You know, the guy in the place with the thing" when you mean Hitler,
He refuses to join the American Association of Retired People, or AARP, which he pronounced phonetically, saying, "AARP's the last sound you make before you die."
This story was originally published January 27, 2015 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Dr. Rajinder Chhokar receives St. Francis Hospital's Butler Award ."