Kondai L. Parthasarathy, MD

On April 4, 2021, Easter Sunday, Dr. K.L. Parthasarathy (Parthas) finally laid down arms in his battle against heart disease and joined Sarasa, his beloved wife of 55 years, 44 days after her death. He was 81 years old.

Parthas, born and raised in Alleppey, Kerala, was the son of Ramachandru Ammal and Lakshmana Reddiar. He was the eldest of 10 children and loved his siblings deeply.

Dr. Parthas, certified in internal medicine, nuclear medicine, and nuclear cardiology, began his career as a graduate of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. He spoke fondly of fellow students, Venkataraman (Vengi), Srinivasan (Cheenu), Shankaran, Vedantham (Mani), Viswanathan (Viswam), in whose father’s clinic Parthas worked while awaiting for his documents to go abroad, and Bharathan, who would later become one of his best friends. One story was about how Mani and Parthas, who played the bulbul (a string instrument) a little in high school, had tried to take violin lessons. After the third class, the teacher looked at them and said in Tamil, “For the two of you, this...,” and shook both his head and hand defeatedly gesturing this wasn’t going to work. A few weeks later, they decided to try to learn what they thought would be an easier instrument – the flute. Half an hour into their third lesson, the teacher - different from their first - stopped them and said, again in Tamil, “For you two, this isn’t right. We could try but I don’t think it’s going to work.” With that assessment, Parthas’ musical dreams ended. This long ago rejection is likely the reason why he tried to persuade both his daughter and granddaughter to take the two instruments he failed at.

A letter from one of his medical school friends, Gopalakrishnan (Pillai), persuaded Parthas to come to North America to practice medicine. Leaving his wife in India to have their eldest child, Parthas went to Canada and worked at Moncton City Hospital for 2-years. Later, reunited with his family, he worked at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn and had his second child. He eventually moved to Buffalo, NY and spent 21 years at Roswell Park because of the nuclear medicine pioneer, Dr. Merrill Bender.

On July 1, 1989, at the age of 49, Parthas had a major myocardial infarction that forced him to retire from full-time employment. Though he wasn't expected to live without a heart transplant, he defied medical odds and not only survived but thrived. Parthas openly attributed his recovery to "the prayers of kith and kin," but his sheer determination and stubborn will to live played a significant role. He loved living and wanted to be a profoundly productive participant in life and fought his hardest for each year, each day, each hour on earth.

Parthas loved to create and invent. He was always thinking about ways to improve existing things and had even applied for several patents to do so. He was intuitively mechanically talented and early in his career had been very interested in being a cardiac surgeon. He loved traveling; his favorite place was Cape Comorin, the site of his honeymoon.

Dr. Parthas had approximately 30 publications and presented or presided over numerous conferences. But the professional accomplishment he was most proud of was teaching resident physicians. Teaching brought him tremendous satisfaction and enjoyment, and even decades later, many of his residents remained in contact with him. Parthas had extremely high standards, and very few people could meet those standards, including himself. However, one person who could never disappoint was his granddaughter, Priya, whose daily Good Morning & Good Night texts lifted his spirits. The most important lesson he imparted as a parent was to love and to value family.

Parthas loved and genuinely cared about people. He was generous, perhaps to a fault. It is not an exaggeration to say he would’ve given the shirt off his back if someone asked him for it. He borrowed money to lend others, never letting them know where the money came from. At Christmas, he gave boxes of candies and cookies to everyone from former coworkers at medical facilities, to his pharmacist, and even the guys who repaired his vehicle. Once, he opened his home to a total stranger, an Indian tourist, who was stuck at the Buffalo-Niagara international airport and found “Parthasarathy” randomly in a phone book and called asking for help.

Parthas devotion to his wife, Sarasa, was unquestionable. Theirs was a true love story. Like most Indian couples of their age, they had an arranged marriage. But they knew they had been destined to be together. Sarasa remembered seeing the name “Parthasarathy” written on a wall when she was a young girl and being unexpectedly mesmerized by it; Parthas remembered pointing her out to a friend at a wedding and asking, “Who is that chick?” her beauty catching him by surprise. Years later, they married in a non-traditional ceremony in Kanakakkunnu Palace in Trivandrum.

Long before the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa formed, Parthas began referring to Sarasa and himself as “Salt & Pepper.” It wasn’t because she was fair-skinned, light-complexioned while he was darker, as his young children assumed, but because Salt & Pepper, like Sarasa & Parthas “always go together.”

In the summer of 2020, he began experiencing symptoms of heart failure. Ever the fighter, he researched and sought every non-aggressive treatment option, trying to stave away the inevitable. In February 2021, he was taken to the emergency department and wasn't expected to return home. Once again, Parthas defied medical odds. He returned home under hospice care, and within weeks saw a considerable improvement and decided to continue fighting. Parthas was not the type of person who was satisfied by waiting patiently for his clock to run down; he wanted to run full-out until his time was up. He took himself off hospice care to pursue medical intervention strongly believing "Sarasa wants me to do this." His eagerness to live was probably a reason why he always “looked better than his numbers” (blood work and tests) - something that held true till the very end. He considered the almost 32 years he had "extra" with all of us a true blessing.

Dr. Parthas leaves behind loving children, daughter, Remla, and son, Murali; beloved granddaughter, Priya; adoring sisters, brothers, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, cousins, nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, grand-nephews; countless friends and acquaintances whose lives he touched; and a lasting legacy.

Sometime in the future, a joint Celebration of Life will be held for Salt & Pepper. Instead of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice Buffalo; hospice was the closest thing to the type of concierge medicine care that Dr. Parthas wanted but never had.