Dr. Belal Bin Asaf

Our 8-year-old son needed heart surgery, and we were terrified. Dr. Asaf was the first doctor who didn't just talk to us, he got down on his knees to talk to our son, showed him the stethoscope, and explained everything in a way a kid could understand. The day of the surgery was the longest of our lives, but he came out to the waiting room himself three times to give us updates. The nurses said he's like that with all the kids. Our boy is home now, playing soccer, and we still get a little emotional thinking about how gentle the whole team was.

I've been seeing Dr. Asaf for my heart condition for nearly a decade now. What I appreciate most is that he remembers me—not just my chart. He'll ask about my granddaughter by name, or if I finally took that trip to Goa. When my meds needed adjusting last year, he laid out three different options with clear pros and cons, and let me choose what fit my life. That kind of respect is rare. You don't stick with a doctor for ten years because they're just smart; you stick with them because they listen and you trust them completely.

Had a valve replacement with Dr. Asaf. He's good. Straight talker, no sugarcoating. Surgery went fine, recovery's on track. Parking at Medanta is still a nightmare, though.

I thought it was just heartburn. Seriously. By the time I got to Medanta, they told me I needed a double bypass. I was a wreck. My first meeting with Dr. Asaf, I was scribbling notes, my hands were shaking. He took my notepad, put it aside, and drew a simple diagram on the whiteboard. 'This is the problem,' he said, pointing, 'and this is how we fix it.' He made it feel manageable. The surgery itself... well, I was asleep for that part. But the follow-up? He checked on me every morning, even on a Sunday. There was one day I felt a weird pinch in my chest and panicked—he had a nurse come in within minutes just to reassure me it was normal. It wasn't just fixing a heart; it felt like he was guiding me through the whole scary process.