Gopi Chand Mannam

Gopi Chand Mannam is an Indian cardiothoracic surgeon and the chief cardothoracic surgeon at Star Hospitals, Hyderabad, known for the performance of over 3,000 pediatric heart surgeries.[1] After graduating from Guntur Medical College in 1981, he worked in Jamaica for two years at Victoria Jubilee Hospital, Kingston and Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital, Westmoreland,[2] before moving to UK where he secured Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1986, followed by another Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow in 1987.[3] He worked in the UK for five years at the end of which he secured the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of London before returning to India 1994 to join the Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad as a senior consultant in cardiothoracic surgery.[3]

Mannam is credited with the second heart transplant surgery in Andhra Pradesh which he performed with a team of 25 doctors on 9 May 2004 at Care Hospitals, Hyderabad.[4][5] He is reported to have performed over 10,000 heart surgeries of which over 3,000 were pediatric surgeries.[1] The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to medical science.[6] His daughter, Nikitha Mannam, is a filmmaker, known for her short films.[7]