Dr. Chinnababu Sunkavalli

God has made me a masterpiece. Does that sound good? Do you think that I’m boasting? I believe God has done not only that; He has done much more than that to me. I would say that I’m more than what is spoken about me, because I am uniquely created as a masterpiece by the Master himself. God has taken me from a hamlet to Hilton. He took me from an utterly rural village which doesn’t have road connectivity even today; it doesn’t have a cement road today and the population of the village is less than 150, wherein I had to walk barefoot for three kilometres to go to my school. From that kind of situation, God has lifted me up to work in the best hospitals in the country today. I’m reminded of what Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “We are created as a masterpiece for the good works that God wants us to do which are ordained to us before time in eternity past.” God decided where I would be, where I would be working, with what purpose I would be working, with what integrity I would be working, and what kind of excellence I would be showing in the marketplace. All that the Lord Himself has predestined and decided. So with that in mind, if I have to look back, becoming a doctor was not even in the remote radar of my parents.

When I was 10 years old, I used to chop grass to feed the cattle. I was excellent in cutting grass, and one day I happened to unknowingly cut the frontal and rear parts of a cobra. That’s how my journey as a surgeon began.

As I said before, I grew up with humble beginnings. I’m not complaining about it, I’m happy about the way the Lord has brought me up. I don’t have any regrets about it, but what’s more important is that not even higher education was possible in my village. Not a single student achieved higher education in the village. I was happy going to school barefoot and then I used to help my parents on the farm. They gave me the responsibility of grazing cattle in the field. When I was 10 years old, I used to chop grass to feed the cattle. I was excellent in cutting grass, and one day I happened to unknowingly cut the frontal and rear parts of a cobra. That’s how my journey as a surgeon began.

So how could I become a doctor? Something big happened in my life. When I say big, it is cosmic. When I say big, there are key players involved in making me what I am today. Firstly, I had a praying mother. I come from a Hindu background, and she was the first in the family who knew the Lord personally. She was a passionate lay missionary pastor, and she was ministering in the villages in Davangere, Karnataka. She was the one who was praying that her children would be raised in such a way that they would bring glory to God’s name. I don’t know if she really ever prayed that I should become a doctor, but all that she prayed in her own language was that I should bring glory to God’s name. She was an element, or I would say, an ardent prayer warrior. A praying mother’s role does have a significance in your upbringing. My mother knelt down to pray early in the morning at 4 o’clock and would pray fervently that all her children are blessed, even as we had a very humble living. Secondly, I had a teacher who believed in me, a teacher who thought that I’m meant for more than grazing cattle or cutting grass. I’m not belittling farmers; I respect them, but he thought that I am meant for a greater purpose than doing what I was doing.

While God has great purposes for each one of us, He also makes sure that He will provide the necessary resources for us to accomplish what He has planned for us. Even if it means that the heart of the Prime Minister has to be moved, that is possible with God. So, God’s purposes are fuelled by God’s resources.

Thirdly, I had somebody called by the name of Rajiv Gandhi. He was the Prime Minister of the country at that point of time, and he realized at that point that children who were in villages needed to be educated well and resources needed to be provided for them. That’s when he got the idea of bringing the concept of Navodya Vidyalayas in 1986. I had the desire to write the exam, but the teacher said they selected five students to write the exam. The next day the teacher came back and said that out of the five, they disqualified three and only two were eligible to write the exam. I had a desire in my heart that I also should write, but didn’t have the boldness to stand up and ask whether I could write the exam. When they were closing their session, a teacher by the name of Jaiappa entered my classroom, looked at me and said, “Why didn’t we select this boy to write the exam?” Friends, who sent him there? God, who is in control of every situation, sent him so that I would be one among those who wrote that exam, and I was the only one who was selected for Navodaya school way back in 1986.

So, now back to the word “masterpiece” which I mentioned before. In order to craft me professionally, as I am today, God set my mother on prayer. God sent a teacher who believed in me and who encouraged me, and also God moved the Indian government to resource my  education. So while God has great purposes for each one of us, He also makes sure that He will provide the necessary resources for us to accomplish what He has planned for us. Even if it means that the heart of the Prime Minister has to be moved, that is possible with God. So, God’s purposes are fuelled by God’s resources. He doesn’t purpose anything for you without a resource in your life. Think in your heart about the key people who played a role in your life and who are resourceful for you in your upbringing thus far. Now think of some people in whose lives you can be a source of influence. In your office or in the workplace, you can be a source of influence to somebody, maybe through prayer, maybe just encouragement, or maybe through being a resource. God can initiate not only on a national scale but on internationally-scaled projects with you if you are available for Him. God is looking for vessels for honour and to set apart for the Master’s use. He wants to use you in a big way and He wants to provide all the resources for you. My friends, I would quickly touch upon the integrity issues in my workplace. In my opinion, we can never accomplish greatness without integrity. I came to know the gospel substantially well when I was studying medicine. That’s when the biggest miracle ever happened in my life. The Director of Apollo Hospitals once asked me, “What is the secret of your happiness? I see you smiling all the time. What is the secret?” I said, “It is inner engineering done by Jesus Christ.”

I can say that education can make me a doctor, but Christian ethics, Christian morals, would make me a good doctor.

Even if I had not accomplished all that I’ve accomplished till now, I would still be the son of God. That is the biggest thing for me. I can say that education can make me a doctor, but Christian ethics, Christian morals, would make me a good doctor. There’s a lot of difference, especially in the present era of commercialization, between a doctor and a good doctor. I did well in school and God took me to the medical school by His grace. For a village boy, going to a medical school was a big thing and everybody celebrated in the village.  In the medical college it wasn’t easy. My fellow students nicknamed me as Gandhi because in the first year I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and my life changed. In medical college, money was the top priority followed by influence and luck, and knowledge came last. As far as I was concerned, Jesus was my milk, and He was my milk formula.

Once I finished MBBS, I was at a crossroads. Since I had humble beginnings, I had a tough time convincing everybody that I needed to prepare for post-graduation exams. Everybody advised me to get a government job, work for the family, and earn some money. During tough times, many well-meaning friends will come to you and give you free advice. My friends took me to the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, J.H. Patel’s house. I went to his room and he called the KPSC Chairman and asked him to give me an ESI Government job. During the interview, the Chairman didn’t ask any subject-related questions and was asking everything about politics as he thought that I was a politically-connected person. He asked me about the number of MLA and MP seats I have in Karnataka, so on and so forth. I never knew any of the answers, but in God’s plan, I was not destined for that. He saw to it that in the paperwork, they disqualified me. The Chief Minister wanted me to work there, but it was not in God’s plan for me. Then God spoke to me clearly through Acts 1:8, that He would take me to the uttermost part of the Earth and He promised me that I should write an exam and that God would give me a seat in the all-India entrance for postgraduate studies. That’s how I prepared for the exam and went to write the exam on January 5th, 2001. Before the exam day, on the previous night, my friends called me up at my hotel and said, “We have the answer key available for Rs. 5 lakhs. We are all put up in a room and the key is available. What do you want to do? Are you interested? Three or four people can come together, we can share the amount and we can get a free seat.” At those times, we had to pay Rs.70 lakhs-Rs.1 crore to get a postgraduate seat. It was a tempting time for me, and it was a test of my integrity. Then I prayed and committed to the Lord, “Lord, you gave me a promise and you need to fulfil the promise that you gave to me.” That’s how God became my strength, He became my wisdom, and He became my reward too. I could get a Masters in General Surgery through that entrance exam and I could finish it with three gold medals. Once I finished my Masters in General Surgery, the question I had was whether to go to the US or the UK or settle here in India. Then I put one condition before the Lord: “Lord, I want to stay back in India. If You give me a super-specialty degree in the one exam that I will write – and I will not write more than one exam – if You give me a seat in this exam, I will consider that as Your will for me and stay back in the country.” I wrote the all-India exam for a super-specialty degree for MCh in Surgical Oncology and in a country with a population of close to 1.1 billion and with 10 seats in surgical oncology super speciality, this humble man from a village became one among them. I praise God for His provision, and all through my life my education has been tuition free except for the nominal government fee. Everything has been free because my resource is God Himself.

I finished my super-speciality, and then I landed in Hyderabad. I was about to begin my practice at Kamineni Hospital, and a good friend of mine came to me and said, “If you want to establish yourself in your practice, you need to host many parties. You need to drink for them, and that’s how you develop your network and become close friends.” But I said, “I do not want to compromise on my Christian values.” I say my biggest network is with Jesus Himself. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man. I can testify today that God was with me and that’s how I could see success in the workplace. Even as I continued to practice at Kamineni Hospital, God gave me a burden to start a clinical research company called “Clinsync.” In this country, they view clinical research with suspicion due to a lack of integrity and ethics. We established it seven years ago and the Co-Founders made an agreement that we shall not deviate from the norm. We lost 70 per cent of the business because we didn’t want to do any studies or any projects which were violating regulatory norms. Even at the cost of losing business, today I can say ‘no’ because we took a stand not to violate the norms. God has blessed us so much that today Clinsync is not only in India but it also has offices in Dubai, Vietnam, and the US, and this is because people around the world are looking for institutions and organizations with integrity. They value it more, even if they don’t practice it, they are looking for people who have these values. Monetarily, we didn’t make great progress, but because of our values and integrity, they chose us to be on their radar. They partner with us strategically and we can now go on to expand Clinsync across the globe.

I went to one of the best cancer institutes in the world called Memorial Sloan-Kettering in Newark and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. That is where I saw one poster in the hospital in the OT which said, “Perfection is our goal. Excellence will be tolerated.” This is what the Lord expects from our life. He is perfect, I’m not perfect, but He wants me to think of excellence in everything that I do. Today, how do we approach excellence in our life? I would look at three ways in which I look at excellence. Number one, I want to align with God’s purposes. Number two, would be an enhancement of skills. You need to enhance your skills and you need to be guided by the Holy Spirit for the timely wisdom. And thirdly, through the power of prayer.

To be successful in the marketplace, you and I need to desperately depend on God and we need to have an ambition to live a life of legacy.

Let me share a story about a patient who was a VIP, and most times, VIPs do have such problems. This was the radical surgery of the cervix and we had to do a radical hysterectomy. One of the assistants, during the retraction, injured a major vein called iliac vein at the junction. Within a second, the whole field was full of blood and within a few seconds everybody came to watch what this boy would do, as that was one of the early cases. I compressed the vein so that the bleeding would stop, and cleaned the entire area. Then I said, “Lord, we need you desperately.” That was a loud prayer because that was at a critical point and I didn’t have a second chance. Even as I prayed and took a stitch, a timely right stitch, there was no chance to meddle around that area. In one stitch, the bleeding completely stopped and there was not even a drop of blood. That is the power of prayer! It is not my excellence, not my skill, but it is the power of prayer.

I can tell you confidently today, my anaesthetist reminds me of prayer. Recently, I was in a hurry to start a robotic surgery. I came late to the OT. They were all ready to go, and I took the knife to put the incision and my anaesthetist reminded me by saying, “Sir, the prayer is not over.” She’s trained to pray before we start the case, that’s when I realized that before I start every surgery I need to pray and desperately ask for God’s wisdom and guidance.

God enabled me to start an NGO called The Grace Cancer Foundation as a social enterprise. It’s based on the Christian principle of showing the love of Christ in the marketplace so that even as you work amongst others, you would show the test of your character in their midst. So this has been a wonderful journey through Grace Cancer Foundation, we could reach close to five million people. This is close to my heart because this is how we reach the most marginalized section of the society. We go right to the doorstep of the people who are really poor. This NGO is an ode to my mother, who was a significant influence in my life. We started off with a mobile cancer screening campaign with one bus that was donated by the State Bank of India. We didn’t ask them and they said, “We have CSR funds. Do you want to do anything with this fund?” They came, and they asked us and the Lord showed us that we need to go to the villages through this mobile cancer screening campaign. I’m very happy to share that God has blessed what started as an awareness campaign and has catapulted it into a pink revolution. Hundreds of volunteers have joined this campaign, and we were able to reach millions of people in order to bring not only awareness but also detect cancer early. The impact is significant through this foundation. God has been working on wonderful things and teaching me wonderful lessons.

What is more important is that it is not about the records or the numbers, but it is about a single life that is touched by your work. God has enabled us not only to work through this foundation but also to start a cancer hospital in Islamabad, where in unity we wanted to bridge the gap in healthcare. They had very outdated Cobalt Therapy radiation equipment and an old hospital in Islamabad. God encouraged me even as I was visiting this centre for the last 10 years, every Friday, and operating there for the poorest of the poor. We started a new unit by putting state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment and giving the best-in-class cancer treatment in a remote place. We wanted to bring the best advanced cancer care access within the reach of a common man. This is how God has been using me in the marketplace for His glory!

To be successful in the marketplace, you and I need to desperately depend on God and we need to have an ambition to live a life of legacy. I want to tell one story in which God amazingly worked in my life and changed my perspective about life. There was one patient that had cancer of the oesophagus and this patient was one of the earliest cases that I have done in Kamineni. It was a six-hour surgery, and I took a promise from the Word of God, Joshua 1:9. God spoke to me that He’ll be my strength, and I did the surgery very well by finishing it within four hours. On the third or fourth day, the patient developed respiratory complications. They put her on a ventilator and she was never going to make it. That is the time I told her, “Only Jesus can deliver you. That’s what I believe in.” With tubes in her body, she nodded her head. Within the next few days, she deteriorated, and we decided to disconnect the ventilator in the ambulance and send her home so that the cost will come down. With so much pain, I sent the patient home in the ambulance, thinking that they would bury the body the same day. After one week, I happened to teach at a medical college in Narketpally, and that’s where I found a lady with tubes and bags shouting behind me, “Hello, sir! I’m your patient. I’m still alive.” It’s a miracle, because she trusts in God and God healed her. I gave up, and I sent her back. Our purpose is really not ours, it is His. Our integrity is not ours but He helps us. Our excellence is based on His provision. It’s all about Him and His grace. It is not what we leave for others which matters, but what matters is what we leave in them. In order to leave a legacy you need to live a life of legacy. I believe the best is yet to come for me. I tell my daughter, my legacy for you is a fleet of hundred buses, not to own them, but to go and drive them so that you can impact millions of people.