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Girinath feted
The 25,000 surgeries include 15,000 coronary bypass operations, 4,000 valve repairs and replacements and around 5,000 operations for congenital heart diseases. He has also performed the largest number of beating-heart surgeries.
The chairman of Apollo Hospitals, Dr Prathap C Reddy, presented Dr Girinath a plaque as a token of appreciation and recognition. Applauding his achievements, Dr Reddy said, "It is indeed a moment of pride and joy for me and for the entire Apollo family. Dr Girinath is one of the four strong pillars who has been responsible for Apollo's growth and success. He has an unique gift -- the ability to guide the ill back to health. We treasure this ability. The world of healthcare is made stronger by his presence as is the country. In our celebration of life, we honour him." Girinath's patients come from all walks of life and from varied age groups. The list of surgeries includes a heart surgery on a four-day-old baby and also a heart surgery on a 97-year-old person. One of his patients, Ann Waina Wanjiru, a nine-year-old from Kenya, was operated upon recently at the Apollo. He has been instrumental in establishing the cardiac surgery programme in Sri Lanka and Africa among other countries. He has initiated a series of social service activities. He also offered his services to patients of the Idhayam Kappom project, promoted by the Tamil Nadu government, and initiated the SACH (Save a Child's Heart) scheme. Claiming that Girinath was the first surgeon to achieve this spectacular performance in this part of the world, Dr Prathap Reddy said the success rate spoke volumes of his skill and hard work and that of his team. Girinath's 'guru' and thoracic and cardiac surgeon of a hospital in Mumbai, Dr Nemish A Shah, said though Mumbai was the first city in India to undertake the first by-pass surgery, South India, especially Chennai, was now emerging as the best place in the country for providing top class medical care to patients. The 25,000th patient, Rajalakshmi, wife of renowned violinist, Lalgudi G Jayaraman, was present on the occasion and offered a bouquet to Girinath. Preeta Reddy, Managing Director of the hospitals, recalled that Girinath performed his very first coronary by-pass surgery on one of her relatives, 20 years ago, when everyone had doubts whether an open-heart surgery in India would be feasible. Replying to the felicitations, Girinath, said he had performed over 100 open heart surgeries in the first two months of his association with the Apollo in early 80's. He said nearly 55,000 coronary by-pass surgeries were being performed by various institutions in the country annually in the country now. Nearly 90 per cent of coronary by-pass in the Apollo were now done through 'beating-heart surgeries'. Girinath, who is in his 60s, and performs seven to eight open-heart surgeries a day now, said the "most complicated and challenging surgery" performed by him was eight years ago when he did the first heart transplant in Apollo. He had no previous experience and relied largely on an audio-visual presentation of a heart transplant which he had seen earlier. He said, "It was Dr Reddy's vision to make this hospital a world-class healthcare service provider that motivates us at Apollo. The medical community today associates Apollo with superior quality of service and medical treatment. And from the day I stepped into this place, I have experienced the effort that has gone into and is continuing to go into this hospital to make it world-class. It is indeed a significant day of my life and I thank the entire Apollo team for the trust and support that they extended towards me." About a typical day in the Apollo Hospitals, he said he would normally perform five to eight surgeries a day. The number would be less if there were more children involved. That was because a child's heart was small and the area to be operated upon was a tiny one, he pointed out. He said he was concerned about the rising number of heart patients in the last ten years or so. About 25 years back, there were very few heart attacks. He was not sure why the number was increasing all the time, though stress at work and elsewhere could be one of the factors.
He was among the first few surgeons to have joined the Apollo group in the early 1980s. He has been instrumental in establishing a strong cardiac programme across the Apollo group. He has trained over 30 surgeons who are currently practising across the Apollo group and other centres in the country. Responding to Prathap Reddy's warm and effusive praise of his services, Dr Girinath quipped, "He probably wants me to conduct another 25,000 heart surgeries." R Rangaraj
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Apollo Hospitals, Asia's largest healthcare service provider, felicitated Dr Maligail Ramakrishna Girinath, at a function in Chennai on September 9 on performing 25,000 heart surgeries at the hospital, that too with a success rate of 99.3 per cent.
Girinath has received the Padma Bhushan, the Dr B C Roy National Award, Rashtriya Samman among other awards.
