Indian-American doctor Vivek Murthy sworn in as US Surgeon General

Mysuru: The 37-year-old Indian-American Vivek Hallegere Murthy, sworn-in as the US Surgeon General by Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, and who became the youngest-ever in-charge of the country's public health has a Karnataka connect. He comes from Hallagere in Mandya district.

At Fort Myer military base in Virginia, U.S.A., where he took the oath on the Gita, to become the highest ranking Indian-American in the Obama Administration, he did not forget to pay tribute to his inspiration, his grandmother.

“I am who I am because of my grandmother’s faith, my father’s strength, my mother’s love, my sister’s support and my fiancée’s unyielding belief in me,” he said. “As I look around this arena, I am struck by a simple truth: by any reasonable measure, I shouldn’t be standing here. My family was never supposed to have left our ancestral village. My father is the son of a farmer. He was supposed to have been a farmer, as was I. But for my grandfather’s insistence that his son get an education, even if that meant going into debt, we might have never left that village to go out in the world,” he said.

Watching from Hallagere were his proud relatives, as the ceremony was live streamed over twitter and facebook. Mr Murthy’s parents moved to UK in 1970s. Born in London, his family moved to the US when he was five. The family —  his father, Narasimha Murthy, mother Maithreya and sister Rashmi Murthy, and uncle Thammaiah Shetty were all in attendance to celebrate.

Murthy said "I was never supposed to be the guy giving speeches in rooms like this. I was a shy kid who had a tough time connecting with other children until I discovered a love for sports. Through sports, I came out of my shell, became part of a team and made friends," he said.

He recalled, "I remember a time when I was young, my parents woke my sister and me up in the middle of the night and drove us to a trailer park. A patient my father had been treating, who had struggled with cancer, had passed away, and my parents were worried about his widow grieving alone. I will never forget seeing my mother in her traditional Indian sari holding Ruth as she cried on the front step of her home. Their life paths were so different, and yet in that moment they were family not the kind of family that is chosen for you, but the kind that you choose for yourself. In other words, a community. That was the moment I decided to become a physician."

Co-Founder and President of Doctors for America, Murthy has ties to Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School.