Pradip Sewoke – whose surname means “servant of the people” in Sanskrit, a renowned Angio-plastici an in Franche-Comté (France), is the founder of the largest multidisciplinary Health Center (MSP) in France: the Lion Health Center in Belfort, opened at the end of 2020. This project takes on its full meaning in the very career of Pradip, who has always had the gift of uniting, with contagious enthusiasm and determination, around projects all having in common a sincere love for his neighbor.
He is born in Mauritianin 1960 to an Indian origin family, and grew up in the village of Sebastopol in the center-east of the island, on a farm built by his great grandfather whole ft India several decades ago. Nothing, however, undermines the courage of this close-knit Hindu family where the children grow up barefoot and happy, in the middle of lush nature. As a child, Pradip was already interested in the living, in the garden, in the life and death of animals, which he observed with insatiable curiosity. His school teachers at the time still remember the joyful little boy he was, passionate about nature.
After his Higher Secondary School Certificate in Science in Port Lous, he was employed at the Ministry of Finance. He told about his dream of becoming a Cardiologist to his department head who often talks to him about Dijon (France), the city where he studied and which he keeps close to his heart. Pradip’s dream now has a name: he wants to study Medicine in the Bourgogne Franche-Comptéregion of France. For this purpose, and although he still does not have the money to afford even the price of the plane ticket, he went to the French Embassy to take successfully a French Language test. In case…
The love for Franche-Comtéregion (France)
Faithful to his childhood dream, he did not stop there and decided to specialize in Cardiology, passed the entrance exam and chose the Faculty of Besançon. He is happy to return on vacation to his home country to celebrate this beautiful news he had dreamed of for so long. It was there that he met Leenah, a biology student, whom he would marry a year later. She will join him in France and make together a beautiful family of 5 children from 1999 to 2008.
He obtained his naturalization to French on January 29, 2002. He served the public hospital with conviction until August 2014, when feeling they could not move forward fast enough, he put himself on leave from the public service, feeling hampered in his exercise by internal tensions for which he did not incline. He started practicing liberal cardiology with colleagues and then on his own. He still keeps a link with the Nord Franche-Comté hospital since he intervenes the every Wednesday in nuclear medicine, as an attached cardiologist, to carry out cardiac scintigraphies. But it’s in his function as the referent of the Coronagraphy and Angioplasty unit of the Mulhouse Clinic of the prestigious Diaconat Foundation that the flourished faster. He shares the values of this private non-profit foundation, which consist of: “being at the service of others, working for the well-being of patients and acting daily in a spirit of the responsible initiative”. There he finds many young practitioners whom he trained during their internship in the department of the hospital, he has just left, they too are delighted to find their mentor, his good humor, his simplicity, his humanism, generosity, and his advice.
Always engage
Pradip has also been the sponsor of the French Cardiology Federation of Belfort since 2015 and, as such, supports “Heart and Health” actions. He willingly participated in these screening operations for cardiovascular diseases and public awareness. He still now accompanies the organizers and participants in walks which are a fun opportunity to train as many people as possible in first aid gestures, to raise awareness of the benefits of sport and to take the tension of each other, their sugar level, to detect diseases such as heart failure or diabetes. Certainly echoing his first Mauritian steps in the associative field, Pradip has also been Honorary President of the Belfort Glacis – Handiboxe Boxing Club since 2018. His patients are generally very attached and grateful to him. Thus, the Association of former paratroopers of Belfort awarded him its trophy last February “for his good medical care and attention given to the members and his humanism“. All is said.
Pradip has accomplished his dream and wanted to share it with as many people as possible. He never forgot his origin from where he comes from. This is how he joined GOPIO France Paris (Global Organization of People of Indian Origin) whose philosophy is contained in a sentence in Sanskrit: “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” which means that all of humanity is one big family. This association aims, in particular, to connect India to the host countries and creates interchange in the different domain between the countries. But it is undoubtedly the value of sharing knowledge and implementing humanitarian missions that most appealed to Pradip. He was elected international Coordinator for Europe of the GOPIO association in 2016. He used his powers of persuasion to create a Mauritian GOPIO which was on target for years of the leaders of the GOPIO International organization. He launched the GOPIO Belfort in the East of France.
The largest Health Center in France
As soon as he left the public hospital, Pradip had this idea. He wanted to fight in his way against medical desertification, to bring new doctors to Belfort, to associate practitioners who share a social philosophy of mutual aid, who were favorable for a benevolent and attentive relationship with the patient over anything else, to collaborate among themselves but also with the socio-medical actors of the territory, to promote the formation of their corporation and the development of research. He also wanted to complete the hospital, which was a curative place, with a preventive space by providing the best possible care to patients upstream. He dreamed, for them, of a place where they would receive care from a general practitioner to specialist, including all paramedical service professions, medical imaging, and biological analyses. He thus moved the lines of liberal medicine, to create emulation, to bring colleagues together around a social project before talking about profitability or profit. City medicine must evolve and unite.
When Pradip dreams, as we have seen, he dreams big and fast and gives himself the means to achieve his dreams. The first meeting took place in May 2018. Then in 2019, he created and chaired the association of health professionals in Nord Franche-Comté, and the Lion Health Center opened its doors in December 2020, the year when everything was however slowed down due to Covid pandemics. Once again, the determination of the child of Sebasto polover came with all the obstacles! The 4,000 m2 of premises are already occupied by 50 specialists, 8 general practitioners, and 18 paramedics, 50% of whom are new practitioners in Belfort.
To follow …
It would be a misunderstanding for Pradip to believe that he will stop there. Another part of the dream is already taking shape in his head: open this time, as an annexe to the Medical Health Centre (MSP), an unscheduled care centre which would relieve public emergencies, during the day and until the evening, of all minor accidents or ailments. Which encumber them. Coupled with an imaging and conventional radiology center and scanner, as well as the analysis laboratory already present on-site, this center would be an invaluable care tool for the inhabitants of the Territory.
Pradip liked for a long time, since his first two specialization courses in the North of Franche-Comté (France), the simple people of the Urban Area. He wants to give them back something of the welcome he received initially; he does not forget that after Belfort, he did an internship in Montbéliard and… already working on his mind the plans for the medical health Centre which could be of great help there too, to the population of the city of Princes and surrounding areas!