Dr. Chippy

Our first story features a remarkable cardiologist who is making a bold and inspiring transition. Leaving behind a highly successful and lucrative career in mainstream cardiology, she is following her soul’s calling to create a transformative practice. Her new mission focuses on helping her patients heal from the inside out, embracing a holistic approach to wellness that goes beyond conventional medicine. This is the journey of a healer redefining success and choosing purpose over profit. Meet Dr. Chippy Ajithan.

Dr. Ajithan was born in the small village of Pathanapuramin the southern Indian province of Kerala. Her father came from a well-respected family surrounded by comforts afforded by their status. He had a retinue of people to attend to their every need, including drivers, cooks, and maids.  Her father’s decision to make sure his daughter could dictate her own autonomy came with the cost of losing such comforts and prestige.

When she was finally able to join her family in the US, Chippy landed at night into the chaos of O’Hare Airport.  Looking around and completely overwhelmed by lights of the city, she recalls asking her mother in wonderment, “What sort of grand festival is happening here?”

“It is everyday life here,” was her mother’s reply.

It wasn’t all dazzling lights, as the reunited family carved their new life in a small apartment in Chicago. Chippy had trouble adjusting to such a dramatic shift in culture.  The days started and ended at a rapid pace. As a teenager, Chippy had dreams to lead a spiritual path.  Her parents had other ideas. She could become a doctor or become a doctor. That was it. No other choices were given.

So, she turned inward and found comfort in reading and rereading poems of Kahil Gibran and Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. During this period, she found reconciliation in both science and spirituality. Chippy described to me a poster depicting a diagram detailing the myriads of metabolic pathways occurring in a single cell from her high school biology class. “It seemed insane that all of this is happening in just one cell—I could not even imagine the power it takes to orchestrate this within trillions and trillions of cells in the entire body.” She decided to major in biochemistry at the University of Illinois.

At the expense of her spiritual and artistic interests, she delved into medicine and residency at Case Western. She settled on cardiology and earned a prestigious fellowship at Washington University. For most people, this is a crowning achievement, a culmination of years and years of a head stuck in a book. The end of a difficult chapter. But for Chippy, this decision was even more complex. Because for the first time in her life, Chippy was in love. But this, too, would come with multiple costs.

Raj, her fiancé, was in the middle of a 6-year plastic surgery residency at Case Western. And though the two were very much in love, Raj’s very traditional family thought she was a poor choice for their son.  Looking at her, it’s impossible to understand this.  She’s absolutely gorgeous, obviously beyond just intelligent, and beautifully articulate.  I ask her why.

She shrugs.  “My family was not from the right part of India. I was not the right age, the right caste nor the right skin color. In short, I was just not good enough for him.” They got married anyway, over the objections and even curses of her in-laws.

At the end of her final year in fellowship, she had a chance encounter with a cardiologist from Bradenton. He invited the couple to interview with his group, Bradenton Cardiology.   It was a whim, and neither of them really thought they wanted to settle and practice in Florida. Landing into Tampa from a winter day in Cleveland and driving over the Skyway bridge, changed that.

Then, while looking at an available medical space in Lakewood Ranch, they got to chatting with the family physician who showed them the office building. Her name was Dr. Elsy Rucker. It turns out she was a primary care physician in Pathanapuramin dating back to the  60s and 70’s. Right! The very same small, hard to find on a map, town where Chippy was born.  

“You must know my parents!” Chippy exclaimed. Dr. Elsy replied, “Know your parents? Ask your mother who attended her delivery!”

A quick phone call to Chippy’s mom confirmed it: Dr. Elsy was the doctor that was present for the delivery!  Imagine. Two physicians coming from a country of a billion people, only to see one another for the second time on a chance encounter in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. This and many other coincidences kept happening for the couple on the exploratory mission to Florida.  The synchronicities were just too overwhelming, and they ultimately settled in Sarasota.

Life ticked by.  Chippy joined a successful cardiology group.  Raj, who had been on accelerated course of plastics, leapt right into his own practice.  They both worked crazy hours. Two beautiful daughters, Arya and Maya, joined them.  They purchased a stunning home on the water.  It was the perfect life. Until one day it wasn’t.

A broken life. A divorce. Single mom. Two grieving daughters and a crazy busy cardiology practice. She had to summon an insurmountable amount of strength and once again turned in, to tap into a strength that only exists when life falls apart.  She is now a fully realized version of herself. She shed the gullible, did-as-you-are-told-to-do persona. In forging this new path in her life, she also changed her approach to medicine.

She started to see her patient as a whole person, not a lab value, not a symptom, not a disease. She started to blend a very traditional Western medicine with an Eastern spiritual undertone. On a recent 5 AM day at the office, she sat at her desk and wrote a resignation letter to her current practice. It was a heart wrenching decision to choose to leave an amazing group of cardiologists for a different path in medicine. She wants to blend her passion for science with her love of the unseen.  She goal is to empower others to become their own healers.

The personal growth is emanating off her in waves.  After the interview, I remember hearing her speak at SMH’s “Women in Medicine” luncheon a few years ago.  She was a crazy-charismatic presenter, thoughtful, science-oriented but still soulful.  I also hit up her website, The Mindful Cardiologist (www.drchippy.com), which, although simplified, is a pretty accurate description of her. I click on the tab marked, “The Science.”

Under this tab, there are sub-sections marked as follows: meditation, nutrition, movement, and self-love. Each section is loaded with the latest scientific research promoting the benefits of each of these on our health and well-being.  And, at the top of all of the sections, there is a quote, which resonates about Dr. Chippy, especially after our interview. It reads:

The Pathway

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

-Rumi