“What do you think of doctors?” I have been asked.
“A heartless tribe of professionals experienced in focusing on your wealth while pretending to care for your health,” has been my reply.
But one of the physicians here in Delaware changed my mind.
I have observed him closely for years. He and his wife are both internists in Wilmington and practice under Trinity Medical Associates.
His name is Vinod Kripalu, MD, but everyone calls him Vinny. She is Chetana Kripalu, MD, and everyone calls her that.
Vinny could be mistaken for a famine victim with his frail frame. But his meager physique is not the result of poor nutrition, just a seemingly inexhaustible energy. An avid runner, last December he kept going for over 26 hours until the 100-mile mark finally stopped him.
The Kripalus’ devotion and dedication to helping and serving the needy, however, is unstoppable.
In 2006, Vinny organized his first visible philanthropic effort through a “Brick by Brick” fundraiser. The twelve thousand dollars it raised were used to build a school in Kenya. In 2008, he and Chetana provided their services on a medical mission to Jamaica.
He also established two nonprofit organizations he still serves — the Delaware Medical Relief Team (DMRT) and Premiere Charities Inc. (PCI).
The medical relief team was created in 2009 after an earthquake devastated Haiti.
“We were the first team to go within a few days of the earthquake. DMRT sent out seven teams after Haiti and five after the Nepal earthquake,” he told me.
Their service also helps those closer to home. Each Sunday, rain or shine, From Our Kitchen, a program of PCI, provides food to the homeless and needy at Front and Lombard in Wilmington. The organization feeds about 180 people in each service and has provided more than 80,000 meals since 2009.
PCI has raised more than half a million dollars over the years and contributed each cent to several relevant local and global causes such as the fund for families of deceased local firefighters, help for families affected by diseases such as breast cancer, and aid for victims of a Pakistan earthquake.
I was among those who attended PCI’s fundraiser gala in April at The Waterfall banquet hall in Claymont. I watched in amazement and admiration as Vinny’s father, 93-year-old father, Thirumalachar Kripalu, danced with his daughter-in-law, Chetana.
Curious about the Kripalus’ impulse to help, I reached out to Thirumalachar to trace his son’s roots.
“I had a very tough childhood,” said Kripalu, a retired Indian army brigadier. “We were extremely poor, had nothing. Existence was becoming tough. As a kid, I started begging to earn something and would give it to my mom. This habit of sharing with others became a satisfying habit.”
Kripalu continued: “I was a major posted in the UK when Vinny was born there in 1964. I cannot say whether I influenced him, but one thing is certain: Chetana has a lot to do with his giving. She wanted to serve the needy even more.”
In August of 2015, Chetana and her daughter, Meera, along with Meera’s friend, Hannah, and a nurse traveled to Nicaragua to establish a health clinic.
“Chetana was the only doctor and worked long hours daily at the clinic in Pantanal, one of the poorest barrios in Nicaragua,” according to Chuck Selvaggio, executive director of Neighbors to Nicaragua, a Wilmington nonprofit. Meanwhile, Meera and Hannah volunteered at a nearby school, working with and feeding the children.
“Both Chetana and Vinny have been very supportive of our work, contributing time, financial support (paying for many of the medications given out at the clinic), and, most of all, encouragement and inspiration by example in the great work they do and the wonderful people they are,” Selvaggio said “Their lives are nothing less than a great gift to our community and all the people they serve worldwide.”
It takes a long time, lots of fortitude and some luck to succeed in doing good. Not many doctors like Vinny and Chetana envision “state of complete wellbeing” for their patients by “nurturing their body, mind, and spirit.”
It is fitting that their work reflects the meaning of their Indian names. In the case of Vinny and Chetana, their first names mean happiness (Vinod) and consciousness (Chetana). Kripalu means indulgent.
Maybe that’s why they are happily and consciously indulgent!
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This column was published online by the www.delawareonline.com on July 03, 2019.
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