Dr Neville Solomon would like to express his gratitude to every doctor, nurse and technician and administrator and management who has contributed to the success of the pediatric cardiac surgical program.The Pediatric  Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery units at Apollo Children’s Hospital will complete two years on June 5, 2011. They were shifted from the main Apollo unit at Gream’s Lane to a neighbouring facility which caters exclusively to children less than 16 years of age.

Dr Neville Solomon heads the department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Apollo Children’s Hospital, Chennai. Dr Solomon had the privilege of working for many years with Dr M R Girinath, one of the greatest cardiac surgeons the country has ever produced.  Dr Solomon spent two years at Green Lane Hospital Auckland , New Zealand where he concentrated on pediatric cardiac surgery.  He returned to India in 2003 and became an independent consultant heading his own unit in 2006. He has been concentrating on pediatric and adult congenital cardiac surgeries since 2006. He has completed over 1500 heart operations including all complex procedures ranging from neonatal cardiac surgeries, arterial switch operations, truncus arteriosus repairs to more complex procedures.  One of his areas of interest is repairing mitral valves and Ebstein’s anomaly repairs. He is proud of his team which not only includes the aforementioned cardiologists par excellence but also a dedicated pediatric cardiac anaesthetist, perfusionist, and a team of intensivists, junior doctors, nurses and technicians who exclusively deal with children suffering from heart disease. He runs the Alfred Solomon Heart Foundation which sponsors poor children to undergo heart disease.

The Pediatric Cardiology unit is headed by Dr C S Muthukumaran along with his associate Dr Prasad Manne, both of whom have trained in UK. Dr Muthukumaran has undergone extensive training for over a decade in the UK in interventions (“pin-hole surgery”)  for pediatric and adult congenital heart disease. He is one of the foremost authorities on 3-D echocardiography  (an advanced imaging technology which reveals three dimensional reconstructions of the heart )in the country and both cardiologists are specialists in fetal echocardiography (the modality which can detect heart disease even before the child is born). All diagnostic (including angiogram and CT scans) modalities are undertaken by this department. Many of the simpler heart defects (such as ASD and PDA) and some complex conditions are dealt with by this department WITHOUT SURGERY- no scar, no pain, two-day hospital stay!

The team as a whole over the last two years has completed over 500 heart operations and 300? interventions at Apollo Children’s Hospital since its inception two years ago. Camps and continuing medical education programs are conducted by them all over the country. This pediatric cardiac center  has developed into a tertiary center of excellence with all facilities available 24/7 including ECMO, HFO ventilation and nitric oxide and hybrid procedures ( combined procedures by both cardiologist and cardiac surgeon).