"Often, we're so focused on touchdowns, knockouts, home runs and cures, we are sometimes forgetting the obvious."

In his overlapping roles as a surgeon and a journalist, Dr. Sanjay Gupta often has to don his scrubs while reporting from the field. In April 2003, in the early days of the Iraq War, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was in Baghdad in his role as a CNN medical correspondent, embedded in a medical unit. Jesus Vidana, a Marine, was given up for dead on the streets of Baghdad with a bullet buried in his brain. The US Navy medical unit found him a couple of days later – his pulse barely flickering. Dr. Gupta, who was embedded in this medical unit, wore his surgical gloves to perform an emergency brain surgery on 25-year old Vidana. He survived and is well and reunited with his family. Gupta was quoted in Newsweek magazine as saying "medically and morally, it was the right thing to do." He also performed emergency surgery on Iraqi civilians.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta grew up in Novi, a suburb of Detroit. His parents, Damyanti and Subhash Gupta, migrated from India in the 1960s to work as engineers at Ford Motor Co. - they are now retired. Sanjay earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1993. Fourteen years later he is a practicing neurosurgeon, hosting a health programme on the television, teaching, travelling all over as CNN’s medical correspondent, an author, a columnist (for TIME) – and somewhere along the way also found time to get married to Rebecca Olson – a fellow University graduate. They now have two daughters – the older one not yet three. Two other facts – as a White House Fellow, Dr. Gupta was advisor to First Lady Hillary Clinton – and in 2003, he was named one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive."

But there was room for more assignments in Dr. Gupta’s already ‘heady’ existence. In December of 2006, CBS News President Sean McManus negotiated a deal with CNN that will have Dr. Gupta file up to 10 reports a year for "The Evening News With Katie Couric" and "60 minutes".

His book, "Chasing Life" , a guide to living longer, became a best-seller. It was published in 2007.

"Often, we're so focused on touchdowns, knockouts, home runs and cures, we are sometimes forgetting the obvious. I'll give you the technology but I want to spend a lot of time making sure you're optimized before I get into technology".

Almost obsessive about getting Americans to slim down, Dr. Gupta initiated a campaign against obesity, dubbed "Fit Nation", for which he enlisted and sought help of famous friends like Lance Armstrong and California First Lady Maria Shriver.

What next?

Born: USA, October 1969

Parents: Damyanti and Subhash Gupta (both retired engineers)

Based in: Atlanta

Married to: Attorney Rebecca Olson Gupta, a fellow UM grad

Children: Two daughters – Sage (Born June 2005) and Sky (Born January 2007)

Significant events covered: Iraq war, Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina

Awards won: 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast

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