December 1, 2024
McKnight's Long-Term Care News
There seems little doubt as to the single biggest positive influence for the development of Rajeev Kumar, PALTmed’s new, multi-talented president.
His father, Shiva Kumar, was a government surgeon in their native India. Dutifully, he moved the family every two to three years to care for patients in mostly rural areas.
Later, it was Shiva who advised Rajeev, a self-professed introvert to this day, not to wait a year to take crucial medical school exams after civil unrest in India cut back opportunities.
That set Rajeev, the oldest of three children, on a path to Chicago, where he took up medical residency and fatefully had a geriatrics-focused rotation first. Soon, he added 60-hour work weekends 115 miles south of Chicago in rural Hoopeston (population 4,915), nicknamed “The Sweetcorn Capital of the World.”
While doing everything from delivering babies to presiding over the hospital’s emergency department and an attached nursing home, he won the hearts and admiration of Hoopeston patients, who showered him with corn, fruit, flowers and other gifts. Despite their pleas, he left after several years of moonlighting and full-time work to pursue geriatrics in and around Chicago.
“The most impactful interactions, and my biggest satisfaction, was from taking care of seniors,” he says of his subsequent days at Veteran Affairs and Loyola hospitals.
His skills and reputation blossomed, and he became a respected teacher and consultant. Kumar joined the medical group of a mentor and quickly became its top practitioner. Along the way, he added the title of medical director at a variety of long-term care facilities and started a palliative care program. The professed “policy geek” also became enmeshed in professional association work.
Prostate cancer would take Shiva Kumar at age 55, but not before he urged Rajeev to return to India during a short residency break to pursue the local dating scene. That is how Rajeev met and married his wife, Kiran, who also is a practicing geriatrician in the Chicago area.
Their twin children, Rhea and Rohan, attend the University of Illinois and major in pre-med and aerospace engineering, respectively. The “adventurous” family has vacationed in at least 75 countries, eagerly sampling cultures and cuisines. Iceland was the most recent family destination, in August. October saw a parents-only trip to Sri Lanka.
“I’ve tried pretty much everything that there is to be tried. … If it is a snake or a guinea pig, or whatever, I’ve had a taste,” Kumar confesses. Red wine and “a good Scotch” top his drink list favorites.
A cricket fan and former “all-arounder” who played into his 40s, the 54-year-old also enjoys golfing, which suits his low-key, patient manner well.
“His even-keeled demeanor has been essential during a time when there is a lot of political turmoil related to the nursing home industry,” observes PALTmed colleague and fellow geriatrician Michael Wasserman, MD. “His most endearing quality is his ability to make one feel heard.”
As Kumar knows all too well, he learned from the best.
