 Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale is a leading Indian Cardiothoracic surgeon, who holds the distinction of performing India’s first heart-kidney combined transplant and the heart transplant for a 69-year old person, the oldest patient to undergo heart transplant in India. He is the first cardiac surgeon in the country to perform heart and lung transplantations successfully. He also performed the first successful implantation of ventricular assist device as bridge to recovery of heart, in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. He is the cardiac surgeon at Apollo Hospitals in the Jubilee Hills neighbourhood in Hyderabad. He practised before at Yashoda Hospitals, Secunderabad and Global Hospitals where he performed many of his historic firsts, including the first heart transplant and Minimal Access Cardiac Surgeries. Thus far, Dr. Gokhale has performed 19 heart transplants, 3 lung transplants and over 10,000 open heart surgeries - adult as well as paediatric, with a success rate of 98.4 per cent. A heart surgeon by profession and a philanthropist by nature, Dr. Gokhale along with his core team of professionals and generous donors, have dedicated their time, skills and resources in reaching out to those in need. For his contributions, he has been honoured by many associations including the Indian Medical Association, Rotary and Lions clubs. He was felicitated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh with Ugadi Puraskaram in 2015 and in recognition of his contribution to the medical profession (cardiac surgery) and society, he has most recently been conferred the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour by the Government of India in 2016.
Early Life and Education of Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale was born on October 2, 1959, into an agricultural family at Tamarisa near Gudivada, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, to Sri Alla Venkateswara Rao and Smt. Jhansi Bai in Vijayawada, in the Krishna District of the state. He completed his primary schooling at Zila Parishad High School, Tamirisa and passed his 10th in 1974 with First Class. The family moved to Guntur in 1974, where he joined J. K. C. College for Intermediate and graduated in 1976 with First Class Distinction. He did his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and later completed Master of Surgery (MS) from Guntur Medical College, in 1985. He was trained in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery at Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore in South India and completed M.Ch in Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1990 from Dr. MGR Medical University, Chennai. The same year he completed DNB (Diplomate of National Board) in Cardiothoracic Surgery from National Board of Examinations in New Delhi. He worked for 2 years till June 1992, as Assistant Professor in the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery division at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. He did Senior Management Programme from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 2010. Professional Career of Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale During 1992-93, Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale did fellowship in Heart Transplantation and Lung Transplantation at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia. He worked as a Fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, from 1993 to 1995. During 1995 to 1996, he did Fellowship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, United States, with Dr. Nicholas Kouchoukos and gained experience in the areas of redo coronary artery bypass surgery and aortic aneurysm surgeries and root repairs.  He returned to India in 1996 and worked as Director & Senior Consultant - Division of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at Medicity Hospitals, Hyderabad till 2003. Then he moved to Global Hospitals in Hyderabad as Senior Consultant and Head of Division of Cardiothoracic, Vascular and Transplant Surgery, working in the areas of transplantation and minimal access cardiac surgery, till 2012. In March 2012, he moved to Yashoda Hospitals in Secunderabad, as Chief Cardiothoracic, Transplant and Minimal Access Cardiac Surgeon. Since January 2016, he is working at Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad as Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon.
Surgeries performed by Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale On February 4, 2004, soon after coming back from visiting the heart transplant programme at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale created history by performing the first ever Heart Transplantation in Andhra Pradesh, on Mr. Ramesh, a 27-year old mason who was suffering from an end-stage heart failure. He received the heart from a brain dead donor, victim of a road traffic accident, at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. He did a Combined Heart and Kidney Transplant for the first time in India in 2007. In 2012, a 69-year old man had a successful heart transplant done by Dr. Gokhale. He is the oldest man to undergo heart transplant in India. In 2015, for the first time in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, he did the first interstate transfer of heart from Bangalore to Hyderabad, and performed the transplant successfully on a 46-year old lady. Dr Gokhale implanted Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) for the first time in Andhra Pradesh in 2013, as a bridge to heart recovery in a patient with advanced heart disease. Dr. Gokhale and his team successfully performed the first Lung Transplantation in Andhra Pradesh at Yashoda Hospitals in 2012, taking the medical facilities at Hyderabad another step forward. He and his cardiothoracic surgery team transplanted a lung in 34-year old Mrs. Archana from Pune, making her breathe comfortably again after a long time. Till December 2015, he has performed 3 single lung transplants on patients with end-stage lung disease. Along with that, Dr. Gokhale has performed 19 heart transplants and more than 10,000 heart surgeries that encompass over 300 minimal access cardiac surgeries for heart valve replacements and repairs, coronary artery bypass surgeries and closure of holes in the heart. Other ventures of Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale in 2007 founded Sahrudaya Health, a medical and educational charitable trust that helps patients and educates the common people of the country about heart diseases and their prevention, encouraging research activities. Through the trust, he helped many children undergo heart surgeries, conducted many health camps and education sessions to various sectors of people on prevention of heart diseases. With a view to develop open heart surgery in his alma mater Guntur General Hospital, he entered into Public-Private Partnership agreement with Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2015. He did the first successful open heart surgery in Guntur General Hospital on March 18, 2015, thus establishing successful open heart surgery programme for the poorest of the poor, in a government hospital for the first time in the state. He is the founder secretary of Heart Failure Society established in 2001, through which he conducted many conferences training physicians, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in the area of heart failure and updating on advances in managing the patients with heart failure and in prevention of the same. Personal Life of Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale Dr. Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale is married to Dr. Surapaneni Venkata Lakshmi, a paediatrician and neonatologist at Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Hyderabad. They have 2 daughters, Yamini and Mrinalini. Both were tennis players in national and international circuits and are into medical profession like their parents. (Last Updated on : 04-04-2016) |
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