Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001. Since then, his career has intertwined his medical expertise with journalistic zeal. In 2003, Gupta was an embedded correspondent with the U.S. Navy's medical unit, the "Devil Docs." The posting allowed him to provide viewers with exclusive reports from Iraq and Kuwait -- including live coverage from a desert operating room of the first operation performed during the war.
Gupta also performed five brain surgeries at the time of his battlefield medical coverage, including one particularly notable emergency surgery on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy shot by U.S. Marines when he was in a car that failed to stop at a checkpoint, according to Associated Press reports.
Gupta also contributed to coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in 2004, which won CNN a Peabody Award. It was also during that year that the Atlanta Press Club named him Journalist of the Year.
In 2007, Gupta's first book, "Chasing Life," hit bookstore shelves and became a best-seller.
Most recently, Gupta spearheaded the documentaries "First Patient" and "Fit to Lead" in connection with the 2008 presidential campaign.
But the 39-year-old surgeon's star power appears to go beyond the book shelves. In 2003, according to his CNN profile, People magazine named him on of their "Sexiest Men Alive," while USA Today bestowed on him the honorific "pop culture icon."
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