An Aspirant Who Traversed Difficult Terrain – From A Hepatitis-B Suffering Student To A Neurosurgeon

Inspiration for Serving Hometown

Dating back to 2005, Hardik Sardana started his fascinating journey from the beautiful hometown of forts and palaces, Alwar in Rajasthan. Belonging to a family of Doctors, Hardik plummeted into the medical field so as to carry forward the infallible legacy.

His sister is a dentist who is married and settled in Canada. Having been through this arduous journey, his father wanted him to go for engineering because he thought it was relatively easier. But for Hardik, he thought it was all pre-destined.

The idea of operating on the brain always fascinated him. Hardik has completed his 6 years Mch. course in Neurosurgery from AIIMS in June 2019 and is the youngest Neurosurgeon. He also completed his MBBS from AIIMS in 2013. A total of 12 years that he has spent at AIIMS; has almost become his second home. From a naive to now a Neurosurgeon, AIIMS has for sure given him a lot. But it’s with great humility, he informs that he would like to go back to his city and serve his people for the rest of his life. He says “AIIMS is no doubt my second home, but Alwar is where I come from and would love to go back”.

An Affirmative Start

Hardik decided to join ALLEN in class 11, simply because his sister had already studied there, his grandparents were from Kota and it was definitely the best-known institute to him. Though, the decision was not an easy one considering his first time moving out of the comforts of home and thus leaving behind the most secure environment known to mankind.

ALLEN’s classroom course was the perfect one for him because according to him one needs to have a face-to-face interaction with the teachers to understand the subjects better. He says “At ALLEN you are competing with the brightest of the brightest and it’s a healthy competition that motivates you to study more and more”.

As per him “It is tougher to get into AIIMS than to maybe Harvard as well”. This is because he remembers that during his time there were just 34 seats in AIIMS and the competing students were 80,000 which makes for the oddest possible ratio of selection. But according to him, only ALLEN could make it possible with the kind of competitive spirit and motivation that it imbibes in the students. He says” ALLEN has the best of faculties who will efficiently solve all your doubts.

One day he had a conversation with Brijesh Maheshwari Sir himself wherein he motivated him and made him realize that he too has the capability of scoring a good rank in the top-10 in the country and can get into AIIMS. The conversation had a deep impact on him and provided enough motivation for the rest of his days in the preparation.

Watch this Video 👇🏻 & ‘Meet Dr. Hardik Sardana | ALLEN Alumni & One of the Youngest Neurosurgeons | AIR 4 – AIPMT 2007’

The Rough Patch – From Hepatitis suffering student to AIIMS Neurosurgeon

He was not on an easy path either and had its own ups and downs. Remembering a few rough patches during his stay in Kota he informed that just a few days before the exam, due to some uncanny reasons, he got himself suffering from Hepatitis-B. It was a tough time since he had to study but his body and disease would not make him comfortable enough to be able to do that. He got admitted to the hospital for a few days and missed his studies. But with the help of ALLEN and the support of all the faculties he smoothly managed to get out of the situation.

Another one was the day of the final exam itself. He informs “We had some kind of a strike of the roadways and railways and reaching Delhi at that time was a big struggle. People were taking off the rail and roads. But ALLEN helped a great deal in making all the necessary arrangements for us to safely reach for the exam”. He said that there were many of his friends who could not make it because of the odd circumstances but he was lucky enough to have ALLEN by his side.

Life as a Doctor
According to him, “Happy moments and sad moments both are part of being a doctor. Being in the field of neurosurgery, which has a lot of mobility and mortality, whenever you save a patient who was about to die becomes your best and most inspiring feeling. At the same time, you cannot feel any worse, if even after days of struggling and striving, you are not able to save a life and have to let it go”. As per him a Doctor’s life can give you both highs and lows and can be really daunting at times. But he believes in staying humble and grounded, no matter the circumstances.

A sports enthusiast with a liking for rock music, Hardik’s genuine philosophy of life is to remain humble and grounded.