Lakhumal Hiranand Hiranandani was a pioneering ear, nose and throat surgeon, social activist and philanthropist. Born on 17 September 1917 in Tatta which was in the Sindh province of India and is now part of Pakistan, he was the first son of Hiranand Hiranandani, a businessman, and his wife, Lila. After he had attended a village primary school and high school in Karachi, the family moved to Bombay in 1937 and it was there that he studied medicine at the Topiwala National Medical College. On graduating MB BS in 1942 he did house jobs at the King Edward Memorial Hospital and the Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College. He was particularly influenced by the surgeons Anappa Vithal Baliga and Home Ghandi. Travelling to the UK, he studied in London and passed the fellowship of the college in 1946. On his return to India he joined the staff of his former medical college and also the Bai Yamunabai Laxman Nair Charitable Hospital as an ENT surgeon. At the latter hospital he established the first ENT department in India to include head and neck surgery in its range and it was later named Dr Hiranandani’s Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck in his honour. He pioneered many new surgical treatments including a protocol for throat cancer and his methods were known collectively as *Dr Hiranandani’s Operations*. Actively involved in the promotion of postgraduate training in medicine he was on the committee that established 14 medical colleges in Maharashtra and raised the academic retirement age. The author of numerous articles in his field he also wrote two books - *Histopathological study of middle ear cleft and its clinical applications* and *Head and neck cancer*. A founder member and president of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India he was also a member of the American Society of Head and Neck Surgery. He was the first person from the Indian subcontinent to receive the golden award of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He retired from his hospital at the age of 58 but continued to work as a consultant at the Breach Candy and Jaslok Hospitals and was active as an emeritus professor at the medical school until he was 83. During the devastating drought of 1972 in Mumbai he temporarily abandoned medicine to take on the organisation of aid distribution. He carried out a similar role the following year when floods hit Bihar and Odisha and 20 years later he co-ordinated medical assistance to the injured in the 1993 Bombay riots. A generous benefactor, he was the founder and chairman of the Hirandani Foundation Trust which supported two local schools. In the early 1990’s he was one of the leading lights in the campaign against the unregulated organ trade which cumulated in the passing of an act in 1994 which imposed strict restrictions on the practice. He was awarded the Padma Bushan by the Government of India for his various contributions to medicine and society. In 1937 he married Kanta and they had three sons, the eldest of whom, Navin, followed his father and became an otolaryngologist and well known medical journalist. His other two sons Niranjan and Surendra are leading developers and entrepreneurs. When he died on 5 September 2013, aged 96, he was survived by Kanta and his two younger sons, Navin having predeceased him.