Dr. Nikhil Bhayani: Unparalleled Commitment
An infectious disease physician by profession, Dr. Nikhil Bhayani is a valuable member of the Pratham Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter Board since 2013. His dedication to his patients and his profession is equal to his commitment to Pratham and the underprivileged children and youth we serve.
Dr. Nikhil Bhayani’s role within Texas Health Resources, the largest private health system in the state requires him to ensure that every infectious disease patient (now mostly COVID-19) brought to a hospital is provided appropriate space and adequate care. During the crisis, he has been discharging the extremely critical task of re-routing COVID-19 patients from one hospital to another, based upon bed availability and care capacity. Since many rural hospitals in Texas have been overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 cases and even the larger regional hospitals are operating at near full capacity, this has meant extremely long hours and some difficult decisions for Nikhil. As a physician advisor, he has also led the team in developing and implementing plans to prevent and treat COVID-19 cases within the system, based upon conversations and zoom calls with medical professionals across the globe, including doctors in Wuhan, China.
Despite the stress and rigor caused by his unique role and responsibilities amidst the pandemic, it is noteworthy that Nikhil finds the time to fulfill his obligations as a Board Member of Pratham DFW.
In 2020, Nikhil did a birthday fundraiser for Pratham on Facebook to raise funds and awareness about the criticality of Pratham’s work and mission – every child in school and learning well. According to Nikhil, amongst its other indisputable benefits, education is also the foundation of good health. His fundraiser is only one of the many contributions he makes to the cause. He has introduced several friends and fellow physicians to Pratham’s work and strongly advocates on our behalf at every available opportunity.
We applaud Dr. Bhayani for his yeoman service to the DFW community during this unprecedented health crisis as well as his continued generous support for the education of underprivileged children impacted by the extensive school closures throughout India. As per Nikhil “What I have learned from this experience is that by collaborating and working together as a team, we can make a big difference in a person’s life, whether it is our patients in the US or underprivileged children in India”.
Our thanks to Krish Bhayani and Sangeetha Narayan for contributing to this profile.
