Flashback: When ex-PM Manmohan Singh underwent a redo cardiac surgery in 2009

This year, on January 24, Dr Manmohan Singh became an unexpected entrant to social media’s viral trend — the #10YearChallenge. But this comes with a slight twist.

Exactly 10 years to the day, in 2009, the then 76-year-old prime minister of India was operated by a team of doctors led by cardiovascular thoracic surgeon and vice-chairman of Asian Heart Institute, Dr Ramakanta Panda.

As the nation waited, Dr Panda and his team completed a critical redo cardiac surgery, including five bypasses. The former PM had undergone a bypass surgery in 1990 and a stenting procedure in 2004.


Following his surgery, Dr Singh has been living an active and healthy life, thanks to the help of an exemplary team of doctors.

Dr Panda says he still remembers the day he received an appreciation letter from the former PM acknowledging his skills as a heart surgeon. “In the past 10 years, Dr Singh has strictly pursued his health regimen and cardiac follow-ups. He is a very good patient,” he shares.

Dr Panda, who has performed over 24,000 heart surgeries, is rated among the world’s top heart surgeons, having treated VVIPs such as former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, Rajya Sabha member D Raja, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband Parakala Prabhakar, actor Dilip Kumar, Telugu actor Brahmanandam Kanneganti, Odisha’s opposition leader Narasingha Mishra, Rajiv Shukla, global leaders, eminent industrialists, parliamentarians and actors.

Today, Dr Panda is referred to as the cardiac surgeon with the Midas touch. But his rise to the top had its share of hiccups.

After completing his post-graduation in cardiac surgery between 1980 and 1985, Dr Panda went to Cleveland Clinic for further training. However, on his return to India, he had no work. “To build up a practice, I had to take up really complex cases referred by cardiologists, which other surgeons had refused. In hindsight, it was that choice that slowly but surely built my reputation,” he says.

And that’s the thing that still keeps him going — challenge. Of all the surgeries he has performed so far, 20 per cent were inoperable.

He also holds the world record for performing a 12-graft procedure on a Hyderabad patient with 17 blocks in 2014. The world average for the number of bypass grafts in one cardiac surgery is around three.