‘Heartfelt’ by P Venugopal: Life of a pioneering cardiac surgeon

Dr P Venugopal says very few know of the trials and anguish that went into pioneering India’s modern cardiac surgery programme, or of standing up for the autonomy of its highest institutions. Credited with performing India’s first heart transplant, his memoirs trace his never-told-before journey from a small town to being the director of India’s premier medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Having introduced advanced western concepts of cardiac surgery in the early 1970s in India, he has more than 50,000 heart surgeries to his credit. He was head of the AIIMS cardiothoracic centre and later its dean and director. Intensely reticent, he speaks of his personal and professional trials and tribulations, his achievements, and the controversies that surrounded his career. The book gives a peek into the 1970s and ’80s when cardiac surgery was still nascent and exploratory in nature in the country. It gives details into how techniques, equipment and protocols were standardised to set a benchmark for the near future.

Beginning with his childhood days by the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, he shares about learning under the mentorship of Dr Sujoy B Ghosh; deciding to choose cardiology when a neighbour’s daughter was detected with mitral stenosis; building the cardiothoracic centre at AIIMS; and making history with India’s first successful heart transplant in 1994. There are short notes on the prominent people he met during the journey and has shared the patients’ ‘thank you’ notes to him. He also recalls his days at the PGI in Chandigarh when he was pursuing MS.

A simply told life story, the short chapters make this engaging read worth picking up.