INTRODUCTION

Dr .P.K.Rajiv has been one of the leading pioneers in the evolution of advanced newborn care in India , especially respiratory support to critical sick babies near death . He has saved nearly 7000 babies with 95% survival in high risk situations in his illustrious, dynamic and adventurous career of fifteen years in Newborn Intensive Care .

His futuristic concepts in the promotion of corporate and high technology hospitals in Kerala in 1992 , saw the immense success of this concept over the next ten years with the emergence of a host of high tech hospitals hitherto unknown in Kerala.The population of Kerala till that periodwas content with conventional care and were opting to go to Madras or Mangalore for specialised care .

Dr. Rajiv, despite his penchant for the acquisition and implementation of the most modern sophisticated care comparable with American University hospitals at any point of time in his apex institution, had his heart for community level care of the newborn . His strategies to improve awareness of the pregnant mother towards high risk signs, maternal transport to higher better equipped centers and his crusade to prevent delivery related brain damage to the foetus and newborn baby made him emerge as a household name for newborns in Kerala. His trail blazing career with its lists of firsts and his daring and adventurous treatment in near death situations have rated him as one of the most outstanding and respected newborn specialists of India ,by his contemporaries .

He continues his career in Amritha Institute of Medical Sciences , Kochi as Head of Newborn Services and is currently preoccupied with the completion of his book : Handbook of Basic Ventilatory Care . He continues to train and teach the younger generation of specialists into the intricacies of newborn care since 1995 which is another important dimension of his multifaceted personality .