Dr Suresh Gururaja Rao [MS, MCh (CVTS), DNB (CTS), FCPS, FIACS] is the Lead Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgeon and Director of the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai.

Dr Rao was formerly President of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS),.. (the apex national body of CardioThoracic Surgeons of India), and President of the  Pediatric Cardiac Society of India (PCSI). He is also a Diplomate  of the National Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New Delhi. He is a Fellow of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons (FIACS) since 1992.

Dr. Rao did his M.Ch (Magister Chirurgie) in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala. India.

He then went overseas as a Special International Cardiovascular Fellow to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) USA in 1993., He earlier worked as a Senior Registrar at Children’s Hospital Sydney, Australia and Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand, where he secured his specialized training in Children’s Heart Surgery.

He has been  a visitor and observer at several institutes overseas, such as Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia (1991); Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, London, UK (1994); Children’s Hospital, Boston, USA  (1994 & 2000); University of Michigan’s  C.S Mott Children’s Hospital, Ann Arbor, USA (2000); Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada (2001); Children’s Hospital, University of Chicago, USA (2004); Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, USA (2004); Westchester Children’s Hospital, New York Medical College, USA (2004); Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford University, USA (2004); and The Heart Hospital, University College Hospital, London, UK (2005).

Academic

Dr Rao has  served as Professor and Head of the Department of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, School of Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita University, Kochi, from April 2007 – May 2009, prior to joining Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai. Earlier, he was an Associate Professor at the Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University, Chennai and Consultant Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon at the Madras Medical Mission Hospital, Chennai, India.

Dr Rao has 60 original articles to his credit that have been published in mainstream scientific journals. He has also written chapters in several books dealing with Congenital Heart Defects and their Surgical Corrections.

He has delivered over 100 lectures in various cities across India for the benefit of the general medical community, Pediatricians & Cardiac Surgeons on topics related to Congenital Heart Surgery for their education and to spread awareness of the specialty in the society.  He has been invited for  50 talks in India and overseas, at institutes such as, AFMC Pune, SGPGI Lucknow,  University of Chicago, and Cleveland Clinic USA, to name a few.

Dr. Rao has been the recipient of many Vocational Excellency Awards from organizations like Rotary International, US Military Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq for operating Iraqi children. He has delivered many keynote addresses and prestigious named Orations in many medical societies and colleges across India, including the prestigious “Sadasivam Oration” of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons, in 2006 at Bangalore.

He has been invited as faculty  and has presented papers at scientific conferences in India and Overseas. He has also been a Guest Reviewer for six National and International Journals of Pediatric Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery.

Pioneering Achievements

He has performed the First successful Ross Konno Operation in a newborn baby in India, and has also pioneered in 1994, the use of modified ultrafilteration after cardiopulmonary bypass in children, in India. Has also successfully performed a complex open heart surgical correction in a very sick baby 17 hours after birth which could be one of the youngest patients undergoing cardiac corrective surgery in India.

Professional Achievements

Under the tutelage of the renowned Cardiac Surgeon, Dr K M Cherian, Dr Rao has been passionately and deeply involved in the development  of Congenital & Neonatal Cardiac Surgery in India and has contributed greatly in its spread across India together with  improvement in outcomes. He was part of the maiden team that set up the first Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in India at the Madras Medical Mission, Chennai,  in 1988 – 89.

Dr Rao has been exclusively performing Congenital Heart Surgery since 1992 after his return from Australia and New Zealand.

In May 1998, he was invited to establish and set up the Congenital Heart Surgical Program at the reputed Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) , Kochi.  Over a period of 10 years, this program grew to make Amrita one of the ‘best & busiest’ centres in India for Congenital Heart Surgery, operating around 800 cases every year, in neonates, toddlers and adults with congenital heart defects.

In 2007, he went on to Head the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at AIMS   which was then a program doing around 2,200 cardiac surgeries annually.

In June 2009, he founded the Children’s Heart Centre at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai,  This bridged a gap in this metropolis, of this  much needed specialty. The Children’s Heart Centre  today, figures  on the world map of busy congenital heart centres of excellence in India.  The centre today, has  performed over 12,000 cardiac procedures including 2000 interventions & over 10000 surgeries, making it the largest centre for treatment of  complex Children’s Heart problems in Western India with results and outcomes matching International benchmarks.

Dr. Suresh Rao, has independently performed or been involved in more than 14,000 Congenital Heart Surgeries of all complexities, in newborns, children and adults. Currently, he is a Nationally and

Internationally, recognized expert in Congenital Heart Surgery, and is widely regarded as a very skilled Neonatal and Infant Congenital Heart Surgeon, with some of the best operative results in India for complex infant and neonatal cardiac surgeries. 

Service & Training

To make his skills available to the children from the poorer sections of society Dr Rao has been closely associated with the Gift of Life International Program for Pediatric Heart Surgeries by Rotary International, and has operated on more than 500 indigent children under this program from various states of India, and from other nations like Iraq, Kuwait, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, while at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. 

On relocating to Mumbai, and continuing his Association with Rotary, with  support from Kokilben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Dr. Rao has been instrumental in helping to perform heart surgeries in a large number of indigent children below the poverty line,  locally from Mumbai and from remote hamlets of Maharashtra and Gujarat under the “Touching Little Hearts” Program of the Rotary, and “Have a Heart Foundation, at his current place of work The former program has now taken a bigger dimension by becoming a District program drawing International attention and recognition.

As president of IACTS, Dr Rao has initiated the IACTS Mentored Fellowship Program in Congenital Heart Surgery at KDAH and another accredited centre, where young surgeons are mentored by senior mentors to help them  acquire the skills needed to perform congenital heart surgery.

As one of the very few dedicated senior Congenital Heart Surgeons in India since the last 25 years, Dr Rao has been passionately involved in finding ways and means to make congenital heart surgery affordable to the masses, and has played an important role in improving the outcomes of congenital heart surgery across India to match international levels.  Showing a keen interest in teaching, he has demonstrated surgical techniques at many centres across the country for the benefit of surgeons. He  has also been instrumental in bringing up the level of  post operative pediatric cardiac ICU care , &  has personally initiated improvements in Nursing Care & training  after corrective pediatric heart surgery.

Dr Rao has trained a dozen and more Pediatric CardioVascular Surgeons and continues to train younger surgeons in Congenital Heart Surgery. Many of his trainees are heading Congenital Heart Centres of excellence across India.

He is married to Dr. Anuradha Rao who is a Consultant Ophthalmologist also at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, and is blessed with two children… Daughter Dr. Sanjana Rao who is also an Ophthalmologist ,  and son Sachin Rao who is a Computer Engineer & Finance Professional.

SURESH G. RAO,  MS. MCh. Dip.N.B. FIACS. FCPS

Lead Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgeon

Director, Children’s Heart Centre

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital,

4 Bungalows, Andheri (W), Mumbai 400 053

India