PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2022

S P O T L I G H T

PEORIA, ‘WHERE GREAT BUSINESSES TAKE ROOT, FLOURISH’

Amit Bhanti is proving it every day at his Comprehensive Prosthetics & Orthotics

BY LISA COON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

THE START OF SOMETHING BIG

worker and children’s theater director – were good role models for their three sons. So what’s an orthotist and faithful son to do? Orthotists and prosthetists design and fabricate medical supportive devices andmeasure and fit patients for them. These devices include artificial limbs, braces and other medical or surgical devices. “My father was very good at what he did. He had a big practice and had an impact on people and our community,” Bhanti said. “It inspired me and made me want to follow in his path and to work with people who are physically challenged.” Bhanti graduated in 1998 from All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Mumbai, India, with a bachelor’s degree in prosthetics and orthotics. He then moved to Chicago to attend Northwestern University for graduate work. “I loved Chicago and living in a big city,” he said.

At Northwestern, Bhanti met his future wife, Charu, who also was pursuing prosthetics and orthotics graduate work. His journey brought him to Peoria in 1998 for a residency with Plattner Orthopedics. He thought he’d complete his residency and then move to Chicago or New York. Charu, who was by then Bhanti’s fiancée, had other thoughts. “She visited me in Peoria over Thanksgiving and said after seeing the city that this was where we were going to live,” Bhanti said, chuckling. “She said, ‘This is the perfect place for us. It’s the perfect size.’ Charu is the force behind everything in our family.” The couple g raduated f rom Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine Prosthetic and Orthotic Center in 2000 and married. Bhanti worked for the former Plattner for two years before joining Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, where he

G rowing up in Patna – the capital and largest city in the state of Bihar in India – Amit Bhanti says it was the family expectation to get the most out of your education, then move away to pursue college and career in a larger city. Bhanti’s father – a prosthetist and orthotist – and hismother – a filmmaker of educational documentaries, social

32 NOVEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE