An eleven-member paediatric medical team of Healing Little Hearts, United Kingdom, started performing free heart surgeries on children with severe ailments in collaboration with city’s Heart and Brain Institute, Andhra Hospitals, on Sunday.
The team including an interventional cardiologist, cardiac surgeons, cardiac intensivists, cardiac anaesthetist, perfusionist and nurses is led by Dr. Ramana Dhannapuneni and Dr. K.Vikram of United Kingdom.
The team had performed heart surgeries to 60 children of A.P. in the past one year in Andhra Hospitals and all of them are leading a healthy life now, said Dr. P.V. Rama Rao, Chief of Children’s Services and Director of the hospitals, addressing a press conference.
Mr. Rama Rao said that the camp is supported by actor Mahesh Babu and the Telugu Association of North America (TANA).
Dr. Vikram said that there were many children approaching us for treatment to serious heart issues. “In A.P. alone nearly 7,000 children need surgeries in a year. Unfortunately, many are approaching us in the advanced stage of ailment which can’t be treated,” he said. Healing Little Hearts, which had performed as many as 994 surgeries across the globe so far, will perform at least 20 surgeries in the city before December 18.
Dr. Dilip, cardiac surgeon, Dr. Ramesh, cardiac anaesthetist, and others were present.
