Miracle doctor
SARMISHTA RAMESH
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Specialising in complex paediatric surgeries, Dr. Mohan Reddy's prowess promises life to premature babies.
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SETTING RECORDS: Dr. Reddy with Jerrick.
HE'S been called the "miracle doctor". At 40-plus, Dr. Mohan Reddy, Chief of Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at the prestigious Lucile Packard Hospital at Stanford University, California, is perhaps one of the most respected children's heart surgeons in the world. Specialising in complex and challenging open-heart surgeries on infants, Dr. Reddy has created a niche for himself as a man whose surgical prowess promises life to premature babies who have no hope elsewhere.
In February Dr. Reddy created medical history when one of his patients became the smallest baby to ever survive an open heart procedure involving an arterial switch.
Blue baby
Little Jerrick De Leon was born on February 7 at a hospital in Southern California more than three months early. Weighing just over 700 grams Jerrick was also a "blue baby". This is a fatal condition among newborns where the arteries leading to and from the heart are reversed affecting the oxygen supply to the entire body. Medically this condition is called "transposition of great arteries". "Children with this condition need to have a surgery within a week of their birth. Otherwise it is fatal", explains Dr. Reddy.
But given Jerrick's premature birth and his extremely small size, his doctors in Southern California felt he had no chance of surviving such a major surgery. His heart was only the size of a grape and any procedure on it was extremely risky. That's when Jerrick's mother, also a paediatric physician, heard about Dr. Reddy and had her newborn airlifted 1,000 miles away to Palo Alto in Northern California.
No guarantees
"When Jerrick came here he was technically still a foetus. He had not completed his entire gestation period. So everything about him was so fragile," recalls Dr. Reddy. But arriving at the Lucile Packard hospital did not come with any guarantees. "His lungs were weak and he was hooked on to a breathing machine for a couple of days. During that period his condition would see-saw and we were not sure if he would pull through".
But tiny Jerrick turned out to be a first class trooper. As his condition began to stabilise, he was rushed into the operation room. "Going in I knew the risks were very high. Because of the premature birth, the tissues in his heart were like tender piece of paper that can tear easily. His arteries — the aorta and pulmonary artery — were just four mm each. We had to reverse their positions and stitch them to the right heart chambers. And the sutures had to be really fine," says Dr. Reddy. The surgery lasted two-and-a-half hours. The entire procedure, including preparation, took six.
Now, months later, Dr. Reddy's face crinkles with pleasure as he remembers the successful surgery. "As soon as we finished re-routing the blood supply, we could see an immediate reaction. Jerrick's body, which had been blue immediately turned pink. And it was such a good feeling," he smiles.
While Jerrick's survival has been a record setting feat in medical circles, Dr. Reddy seems to be taking it in his stride. He has successfully performed surgery on an even smaller baby three years ago. "This girl was also a preemie. She had to be delivered when she was just 26 weeks old and weighed just about 640 grams. She suffered from a condition called total anomalous pulmonary veins. This is a high-risk procedure and many of my colleagues told me I was insane to take up such a case. But I felt that if I did not do something, then the child was definitely going to die. So I tried and today she's alive," says Dr. Reddy. This seems to be the bottom line of Dr. Reddy's work philosophy. Sheer dedication coupled with humility and love for all his patients.
Dreams of a doctor
"Even as a young boy growing up in Andhra Pradesh, I dreamed of being a doctor," remembers Dr. Reddy with a laugh. After completing his MBBS from Kakatia Medical College in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, he pursued an MS in Surgery from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Delhi. "It was while working here that I realised I wanted to get into paediatric heart surgery," he adds. In 1990, he won a fellowship in paediatric cardiac surgery and worked at children's hospitals in Boston, Miami and San Francisco. While he was at UCSF, his mentor Dr. Frank Hanley offered him the position at the Stanford children's hospital.
But even today, Dr. Reddy maintains his roots with India. Every year he organises a team of physicians either through Stanford's international medical association or through a non-profit organisationcalled Heartlink and performs surgeries here. While his patients might be innocent babies, unaware of their medical achievements, their families certainly seem to be thankful to Dr. Reddy. Some have called him a miracle maker. But Dr. Reddy brushes off such praise. "I'm just a very good paediatric surgeon. That's all. Miracles are done by God," he smiles.
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