LEWISTOWN — Dr. Rajeshwar Parkash Malhotra was so dedicated to his patients at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital that he and wife Shashpal built a home in Highland Park.

“When you do OBGYN and you have to do a lot of deliveries, you have to run back and forth to the hospital,” Malhotra said in a Dec. 6, 2021, article in The Sentinel about his retirement after 45 years of service.

“So, I wanted to make sure I was really close,” he added.

Many of those patients – which easily number more than 10,000 – have experienced profound sadness after the unexpected passing of Malhotra, a beloved father, husband, medical professional and philanthropist, on Wednesday at age 76. He was commonly called, “Raj.”

At the time of his retirement, the Malhotras tried to determine the number of patients they have attended to over the years, which is hard to determine.

“Since we got the computer we’ve had 10,000 charts for patients,” Shaspal said. “But before computers, people used to just walk into the delivery room or here (the practice). It’s a lot of people. He has not only delivered the patients’ babies but he has delivered their children also.”

Rajeshwar said they stopped counting around the 2,000th delivery.

“At one time, many years ago I used to say, ‘Anybody you see 20 years or younger in town, every third person was delivered by me,'” he explained.

Geisinger Lewistown Hospital officials will certainly miss their former colleague, who has left lasting impressions both personally and professionally.

“Dr. Malhotra selflessly served our community for decades, having the privilege of bringing new life into the world,” said AJ Hartsock, associate vice president of clinical operations, Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital and Geisinger Western Region. “Many of us were either delivered by him or know someone who was delivered by him.

“Dr. Malhotra made an impact not only because of the care he provided, but also because of the way that he and his wife generously supported many causes in our community,” Hartsock added. “He will be truly missed by those that have had the pleasure of working with him.”

The Malhotras struggled when they first opened their practice at 18 N. Main St., Lewistown. In fact, Rajeshwar said there were no midwives at the time, so he had to perform the deliveries on his own.

“Our initial four or five years, life was absolutely miserable to tell you the truth because it was so busy that some days I couldn’t get a chance to sleep,” he said. So, then we just slowly and slowly take time off at least one weekend a month or two and go away somewhere.”

Rajeshwar recalled one especially hectic day at his practice when he had five patients in labor at the same time. At the time, there weren’t any doctors employed at the hospital to assist him, so he had to handle all of the deliveries.

“Trying to deliver five babies, on the same day, some of them within an hour or within minutes,” he recalled. “So, that was the most dramatic day I can remember.”

Over the years, the Malhotras truly supported the community they came to love. In 2015, they gave the Shanti Malhotra Endowment for Women’s Health Services to Geisinger Lewistown Hospital in memory of his mother who died in 2012. The gift benefited women’s health services including clinical care, patient and provider education, applied research and close-to-home specialty care.

For more than a decade, the Malhotras sponsored a spelling bee competition for students from Sacred Heart School, Mifflin County Christian Academy and Belleville Mennonite School. The winner received a $500 scholarship in honor of their daughter, Dr. Anita Malhotra, who was a state spelling bee participant and an alumnus of Sacred Heart School.

The couple also made a substantial contribution to the Lewistown Country Club when the clubhouse needed to be rebuilt following a devastating fire in the 1990s. “The country club wouldn’t be open if it wasn’t for him,” former LCC President Kevin Walker said in a article at the time.

Annual contributions also sponsored the Malhotra Maintenance Tournament, which raised funds for the country club’s maintenance budget.

Throughout the years, the Malhotras have also contributed to the United Way of Mifflin-Juniata, sponsored area community concerts and supported theatrical performances by the Stone Arch Players.

Most recently, they gifted their former commercial office to Downtown Lewistown Inc. in February 2023.

At that time, Downtown Lewistown Inc. President Jon Zimmerman stated that “this gift is a magnanimous contribution from the Malhotra family and is greatly welcomed by the entire Board of Directors of DLI.”

Geisinger also recognized the Malhotras for making the donation to the hospital’s women’s clinic.

“This community has given us so much and we felt that we must do something for the community in return,” Rajeshwar said.

And the community will never forget his generosity and devotion.