Dr S Ramamurthy, chairman and managing director of the Chennai based Malar Hospitals Ltd., passed away on Tuesday.

Ramamurthy (52) was in Singapore for a liver transplant surgery and died there on Tuesday. His body was flown back to Chennai and the cremation took place yesterday.

Born in Padharakudi village near Karaikudi in Sivaganga, Dr Ramamurthy took his MBBS from the Madurai Medical College. He started established his own polyclinic in 1987, which later grew to become Malar Hospitals, one of the leading referral hospitals in south India with over 200 beds and excellent infrastructure.

Malar Hospitals is one of the leading cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery centres in south India, and is the first hospital in the country and third in the world to perform auto graft stenting. The hospital has performed over 1750 bypass surgeries with a success rate of 99.5 per cent in the last four years.

Malar Hospitals is also recognized as a centre for excellence in neurosurgery, oto-laryngocology, limb construction surgery and maxillo facial orthodontology. The hospital has facilities for mammography, whole body computerized tomography with 3D imaging and bone mineral studies, digital brain mapping, gamma cameras etc.

Dr Ramamurthy leaves behind his wife Nithya and three daughters Rathi Malar, Madi Malar and Divya Malar.