HYDERABAD: Telangana Health Minister T Harish Rao on Saturday lauded the team of doctors from the United Kingdom, who successfully performed surgery on nine children with cardiac problems at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science (NIMS) in Hyderabad. These complicated procedures were conducted for the first time at a government hospital in south India.
The surgeries were performed by a team of 20 doctors over 4-5 hours, with assistance from doctors from NIMS and Niloufer hospitals. Dr Venkata Ramana Dannapaneni, a London-based doctor and a native of Jagtial, led the team of UK doctors who flew in to perform the surgeries.
Harish Rao congratulated Dr Ramana and his team for their efforts and said that all doctors should take inspiration from them. He also mentioned that the surgeries were done free of cost, which would have otherwise cost lakhs in a private hospital. The minister also highlighted the high number of children with heart disease in Telangana, with almost 1,000 requiring surgery each year.