Munish K. Batra, M.D. was born in Kanpur, India on Halloween in 1965, which he always felt was fateful. His family emigrated to the U.S. in 1972. He devoured J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut in high school, and entered Ohio State University with the goal of becoming a writer. However, he eventually gave in to parental pressure and studied medicine, attending medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. During his third year of med school, he joined the U.S. Army as a reservist. He entered a general surgery and trauma residency at St. Luke's Medical Center, and during that time he assisted with military operations for Operation: Desert Storm at Fort Ord in Monterey. After his general surgery training, he completed a plastic surgery residency and a craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery fellowship. Dr. Batra's extensive experience in trauma and reconstructive surgery and craniofacial surgery has been put to charitable use at missions overseas, and he has lent his services during natural disasters such as the tsunami that struck southeast Asia in 2004 and the earthquake that devastated Nepal in 2011. He has started Doctors Offering Charitable Services (DOCS), which provides charitable surgeries to the less fortunate in Southern California. His cosmetic practice is one of the busiest in the nation, and Dr. Batra has been featured in People, The Los Angeles Times, and many other national media outlets, as well as The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is active in developing multispecialty medical practices that put patient care and the doctor-patient relationship at the center of health care. Dr. Batra is currently collaborating with Keith R.A. DeCandido on other fiction projects, and is working on a nonfiction book called Medical Madness. He also enjoys Brazilian jiu-jitsu, yoga, and meditation. His wife Pooja and their three young children, Ayaan, Kairav, and Kiara, offer him constant encouragement and support.
