Dr Ram Dhannapuneni Saves Father and Daughter With 3 Heart Surgeries as Alder Hey Marks 75 Years
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Jul 6
Dr Ram Dhannapuneni Saves Father and Daughter With 3 Heart Surgeries as Alder Hey Marks 75 Years
1 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jul 6
Summary
Colin, a 36-year-old from St Helens, said the same surgeon who operated on his newborn daughter Edith later performed his second open-heart surgery, prompting the family to dub Dr Ram Dhannapuneni their "family surgeon."
Edith, born in 2018 with severe hypoplastic left heart syndrome, needed two operations within her first four months, both led by Dhannapuneni at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
Colin had first undergone heart surgery as a baby for Shone syndrome and said Liverpool's linked pediatric and adult cardiac services gave him reassurance when he returned to the operating theatre.
Alder Hey used the family's story to mark more than 75 years of children's cardiac surgery in Liverpool, a service that began in 1950 and has treated thousands of young patients.
Dhannapuneni, the center's head of cardiac surgery, said he has performed 2,500 pediatric and 1,000 adult operations as survival rates improve at one of the UK's largest paediatric cardiac centers.