Dr Muffazal Lakdawala (Dr Muffi) Wiki, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Dr Muffazal Lakdawala is an Indian surgeon, and he is the founder of “Digestive Health Institute” in Mumbai.

Wiki/Biography

Dr Muffazal was born on Friday, 22 November 1968 (age 51 years; as in 2019), in Mumbai. His zodiac sign is Scorpio. He did his schooling from Christ Church School, Byculla in Mumbai. He attended St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and Topiwala National Medical College in Mumbai. He did his MBBS from the Grant Medical College University of Mumbai and Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Group of Hospitals in Mumbai. Later, he pursued Masters in Surgery (M.S.) from B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital in Mumbai.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Eye Colour: Black

Hair Colour: Salt & Pepper

Family, Caste & Wife

He was born in a Dawoodi Bohra Muslim family.

While he was in college, he met the Bollywood actress, Aditi Gowitrikar who was his junior in college. Soon, they became friends and fell in love with each other. Dr Muffazal and Aditi’s parents opposed their marriage due to their different religions. Despite all the oppositions, the couple got married in both Hindu and Islamic wedding ceremonies. Aditi converted her religion to marry her long-term boyfriend, Dr Muffazal and changed her name to Sarah Lakdawala. They dated for almost seven years and in 1998, the couple got married. In 1999, the couple was blessed with their daughter, Kiara, and in 2007, Aditi gave birth to her second child, Zhiaan. Soon, their happy married life started facing problems, and they decided to get divorced in 2008. Reportedly, their different lifestyle was the reason behind their rifts; as Aditi had started her career in modelling and acting, whereas Muffazal continued in his medical profession.

After Muffazal’s divorce with Aditi in 2009, he got married for the second time in 2011. He got married to Priyanka Kaul Lakdawala in Goa, who is working at Digestive Health Institute, Mumbai. The couple was blessed with a baby boy, Kiaan, soon after their marriage. In 2020, Priyanka gave birth to twins; a son and a daughter, and their names are Aari Muffazal and Miaa Muffazal respectively.

Career

He has worked as a lecturer at B.Y.L. Nair Hospital, a teaching hospital in Mumbai. In 2004, he did his training in Advanced Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery with Prof. Seon Hahn Kim in Seoul, South Korea. In 2005, he underwent training at the Unit of Gastro Surgery, with Piet Pattyn from the University of Ghent Hospital, Belgium. In 2006, he did his training in Bariatric Surgery with Raul Rosenthal in Cleveland Clinic, United States. He is one of the surgeons to perform the largest number of single incision sleeve gastrectomy surgeries in the world. In India, he is the first surgeon to conduct a laparoscopic gastric bypass. He operated a 30-year-old woman with unexplained body aches; who had a live worm inside her bile duct. He performed sleeve gastrectomy surgery on one of the youngest patients in his career, a 17-year-old boy Jayesh Malukani. He has also performed Bariatric Surgery on a man from China whose weight was 285 kg (627 pounds); one of the heaviest man in Asia.

In 2004, he founded ‘Digestive Health Institute’ in Mumbai; first Indian Centre for Excellence in Bariatric Surgery. In the same year, he was appointed as the Chairman of ‘Institute of Minimal Access Services at Saifee Hospital.’

Controversy

In 2017, the world’s heaviest Egyptian women, Emam Ahmed (500Kg) was brought to India at Saifee Hospital in Mumbai for bariatric surgery and Dr Muffazal Lakdawala was looking after her case. Later, Emam’s mother and sister accused Dr Muffazal Lakdawala of not treating Emam properly, and Emam’s sister called Muffazal a liar in one of her live videos. Emam’s sister Saimma said in an interview,

Emam has not recovered one bit. She is in critical condition since the past one-and-a-half month and is on massive medications to stop brain activity.”

Whereas Dr Muffazal in his defence said,

Eman is fine and is doing good. She has recovered well and only a CT scan is to be done to ascertain her neurological condition Actually, Everything was right with Saimma for initial 15 days after Eman’s treatment started but when she recovered and we suggested that she can be taken back to Egypt, Saimma started to create all this drama as she doesn’t want to take her sister back to Egypt due to financial reasons, More than a challenge, we took it as a humanitarian cause. We just couldn’t see her lying like that, so helpless, simply waiting for death to come. The risks of this case were 99%. I think now, we have given her a chance to live. If she gets physiotherapy done properly and wants to be able to walk, Eman will have to put in the efforts.”

Major Designations

• Chairman, Position Statement Committee, International Federation of the Society of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO)

• Board Member, AETF – Asia Endosurgery Task Force (AETF)

• Member, Asia Pacific Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Society (APMBSS)

• Director, Asian Consensus Meeting on Metabolic Surgery (ACMOMS)

• Head, Dept. of Minimal Access and Bariatric Surgery, Saifee Hospital, Mumbai

• Head, Expert Advisory Board for the Men’s Health Magazine

Awards, Honours & Achievements

• Silver Medal at Shirin Mehtaji Oration for ‘Obstructive Jaundice’ in 1996

• ‘Humanitarian of the year’ by the All India Human Rights Association in 2007

Hospital Address

C/o Digestive Health Institute, L301, 3rd Floor, Trade View, Oasis City, Gate No 4, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Worli, Mumbai – 400018, Near Starbucks Kamla Mills

Favourite Things

• Attire: Blazer, Blue Jeans, White T-shirt or Shirt and Brown Shoes

Facts/Trivia

• In an interview, when he was asked about his journey as a successful surgeon, he said,

The journey of a young middle-class Muslim boy from Bhendi Bazaar to being the surgeon of the Vice-President of India has been exciting to say the least. No member of my family was a doctor to lead the way. It has been a journey of personal ups and downs that did not deter me from my goal of making a mark in the surgical world. There was a lot of hard work and sleepless nights, with only one aim: to somehow save another life. I learned that the maximum satisfaction one achieves is not by making the big bucks, but by giving back to the less privileged.”

• He was a gold medalist in Anatomy while he was in the first year of M.B.B.S.

• He has performed bariatric surgeries on many popular Indian politicians, including Nitin Gadkari, Nawab Malik, Nitin Raut, Vinod Tawde, and Venkaiah Naidu.

• He is one of the Indian surgeons who has demonstrated live surgery in almost every Asian country.

• His hobbies include playing cricket and doing photography.

• He has also played for under-19 cricket team of Mumbai and has played cricket at the national level as well.

• He follows a non-vegetarian diet.

  Dr Muffazal Lakdawala Eating Duck and Rice

• He is a fitness freak and regularly works out in the gym.

  Dr Muffazal Lakdawala in a Gym

• He is the author of a book, ‘The Eat Right Prescription: From India’s Leading Weight-Loss Surgeon’ (2016).

• He is popularly known as Dr Muffi.

• In an interview, when he was asked what was his prized possession, he said,
  

  My watches. Each has a story to it. The most prized one is an Audemars Piguet watch that my wife bought me when my son Kiaan was born. It has his name, time and date of birth.”

• In August 2020, Dr Muffazal Lakdawala, Dr Gautam Bhansali and their team members were invited to The Kapil Sharma Show to pay tribute to their contribution towards the society during the coronavirus pandemic.

  Dr Muffazal Lakdawala in The Kapil Sharma Show