Panangipalli Venugopal

Life sketch

Venogopal was born at Rajahmundry in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, on 6 July 1942. His enrolled at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, in 1959 to secure his MBBS and continued his higher education at the institute itself. His first post graduate degree was the Master of Surgery (MS) which was followed by MCh in cardiovascular thoracic surgery, which he passed with honors.

In 1970-71, subsequent to his specialization, he joined the Faculty of AIIMS. the major part of his career was spent at AIIMS where he rose progressively, serving as the professor, the Head of the Department and then the Dean, before reaching the post of the Director, the highest academic position on offer at AIIMS, on 1 July 2003.

Soon after joining AIIMS, Venugopal participated in two advanced training programs, an adult Open Heart Surgery training under Denton Cooley at the Texas Heart Institute and paediatric open heart surgery under S. Subramanian, at the Children's Hospital, Buffalo, New York following which he launched the open heart surgery clinic at AIIMS, under the guidance of Professor N. Gopinath, in 1974. This was followed by the establishment of the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre, where he performed the first heart transplantation in India on 3 August 1994 and, later, for the first time in Asia, the implantation of the Left Ventricular Assist Device

After retirement from AIIMS, Venugopal, moved to the Alchemist Institute of Medical Sciences, in Gurgaon, Haryana as the head of the Cardithoracic department. He got married at the age of 55 and has a daughter.

Achievements

Venugopal has pioneered heart transplant surgery in India, having performed the first successful heart transplant in the country, the count now standing at 26 transplants. He performed the first implantation of left ventricular assist device, lasting for more than 90 days, in Asia. He introduced the stem cell therapy, for the first time in India, by the deployment of autologous stem cell implantation for repairing the myocardium as an alternative to transplantation, which he did on 26 patients. He pioneered the stem cell implantation procedure in pancreas for the treatment of Type II Diabetes. On the prolificacy of Venugopal, media reports are in general agreement of his involvement in the performance of over 50,000 open heart and 12,000 closed heart surgeries. He has been a recognized trainer, too, with more than 100 cardio-thoracic surgeons around the world, trained under him.

On the administrative front, he, along with N. Gopinath, started the open heart surgery in AIIMS. He was also behind the setting up of the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre, which later became the venue of the first hear transplant surgery in India and the first Left Ventricular Assist Device implantation in Asia. The centre now handles around 3500 open heart surgical procedures annually.

First heart transplant

The Organ Transplant Bill 1994 was passed in the Indian Parliament in May 1994 which legalized the organ transplants in India. The Bill was on the Table of the President of India for final approval when Venugopal led a team of doctors to perform the first successful heart transplant in India on 3 August 1994. This was the first of the 26 heart transplant procedures performed by Venugopal.

Controversies

In the fag end of 2005 and at the beginning of 2006, about 200 faculty members, including 25 department heads, of AIIMS submitted their disapproval of Venugopal's way of functioning to the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India. The protest intensified when, a batch of students marched to the office of the Director, resulting in the suspension of 6 of them, an act which had no precedent in the Institute. The main argument of the faculty and the students that the hike in charges implemented by the Director went against the mandate of AIIMS.

Further, the grouse of the faculty was also aimed at the appointment of Venugopal, at the age of 61 and already past the retirement age, as the Director of the institute, with a clause to retain him for the next 5 years and until further orders. The move was reported to have shut out the chances of 6 senior faculty members. They were also against the Director holding two posts of the Head of the Cardiovascular Sciences Centre and the Head of Cardothoracic and Vascular Surgery as the posts required full-time attention. On 29 November 2007, Professor venugopal was removed in favor of Prof. T D Dogra, an authority on Forensic Medicine.,, by an order from the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, the reason reported to be Venugopal's open criticism of the Union Government. The Health and Family Welfare ministry, it was reported, was not happy with Venugopal's handling of the quota issue where the Government planned to reserve 50 per cent of the university seats for the socially under-privileged, a move Venugopal was said to have countered using student sentiments. He moved to the Supreme Court and was reinstated for a period 45 days in summer vacation of 2008 before his retirement.

The Ministry had appointed M. S. Valiathan, the noted cardiothoracic surgeon, to report on the functioning of AIIMS and make recommendations on improvements. Venugopal was reported to be unhappy about the Ministry's intervention in the functioning of AIIMS and contested the termination at the Supreme Court of India, by way of a writ petition, on which the Court passed an interim order on 7 July 2006, staying the termination, till the validity of the decision was assessed. After a protracted legal battle, the Supreme Court, reinstated Venugopal, on 8 April 2008., terming the Government act as malafide and unconstitutional.

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