New Delhi, Jan 23: Rama Kant Panda, a noted cardiac
surgeon with Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Mumbai will be among
the team of doctors who will perform the by-pass graft surgery
on 76-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here tomorrow.
Helping the team would be doctors and technical staff
drawn from different departments of AIIMS.
The 11-member team from the AHI includes Panda and
Pradyot Kumar Rath, both cardio-vascular thoracic surgeons,
Vijay Desilva, ICU specialist besides Narendra Garach, cardiac
anaesthetist among others, hospital sources said.
Panda, currently the Vice-Chairman and Cardio Vascular
Thoracic Surgeon at AHI has received cardiac surgery training
from AIIMS itself besides doing a fellowship training at
Cleaveland Clinic, USA.
He has over 13 years of experience and is credited with
being among the first surgeons in the country to introduce the
concept of `total arterial revascularisation`, as well as
being one of the pioneers of `off-pump` bypass surgery and
redo bypass surgery.
According to the AHI, under Panda`s leadership, his team
has performed in excess of 10,000 bypass surgeries. He is also
credited with performing more than 700 repeat (redo) bypass
surgeries as well as more than 1,500 high- risk surgeries.
Interestingly, Panda, who has conducted operations in
most of Mumbai famous hospitals including Jaslok, Breach
Candy, Lilavati and Nanavati hospital has been awarded the
Rashtriya Samman for being one of the highest tax payers
during the assessment years 1994-95 to 1998-99 by the Central
Board of Taxes.
Rath, who completed his MBBS and MS (General Surgery)
from Behrampur University and went on to complete his M CH
Cardio Vascular Thoracic Surgery from Pune University is
considered to be a specialist in off-pump (beating heart)
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting.
He has performed more than 1,000 coronary artery bypass
surgery on beating heart.
D`Silva who is at present Director Medical Affairs and
Director Critical Care at AHI is considered as a specialist in
invasive and non invasive mechanical ventilation, intra-aortic
balloon therapy and hemodynamic monitoring.
Garach, one of the other doctors who are part of the team
formed to operate on Prime Minister, is a specialist in
cardiac anaesthesia and was a gold medallist in surgery at the
MCPS examination in 1977.
According to hospital sources, the team from AHI has
brought about 20 boxes of special equipment with it. "Earlier,
Dr K S Reddy (the PM`s personal physician) had discussions
with Dr Panda in connection with the line of treatment to be
followed," a hospital source said.
Singh, who had undergone a coronary artery by-pass
surgery in the UK in 1990 and angioplasty a few years back,
had complained of some chest pain after which a decision
to carry out tests was taken.
Bureau Report
