In what can be considered a historical case, Apollo Speciality Hospitals in Vanagaram announced the successful separation of Pygopagus twins from Tanzania – Ericana & Eluidi. A marathon surgery of 18 hours conducted by a select team of 20 doctors from the specialties of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, paediatric surgery and paediatric urology was led by Dr. Venkata Sripathi, Senior Consultant Paediatric Urologist, Apollo Children’s Hospital, Dr. Roshini Gopinathan and Dr. K S Sivakumar, Senior Consultant Plastic Surgeons, Apollo Children’s Hospitals. The Surgery which began at 9:00 AM on December 16, 2013 concluded with the successful separation of the twin nine month old boys at 1:00 AM on December 17, 2013. Born in a small village called ‘Kasumulu’ in Tanzania Ericana and Eluidi were referred to Apollo Hospital in Chennai through Apollo’s Save a Child’s Heart Initiative (SACHI) and have been under the expert care of skilled doctors at Apollo for five months now. Both babies who can now look forward to leading normal lives as two separate individuals are currently recuperating in the Intensive Care Unit at Apollo’s Vanagaram facility. They have been stable and are showing signs of a promising and speedy recovery. Commenting on the complex surgery, Dr. Venkata Sripathi said “It took us about 13 hours to separate the twins, post which reconstruction took another 5 hours. The most challenging moments were the spinal separation without injury to the nerves of either baby, separation of the fused phallus without nerve and vessel injury, separation of the urinary bladder and urethra followed by reconstruction of the pelvic floor around the rectum and anus, providing skin cover. In all it took us about 18 hours.” Live born Pygopagus twins are usually female in sex and male Pygopagus twins are extremely rare. Till now in medical literature, only 30 sets of Pygopagus twins have been reported out of which 26 female and only four were were male – making Eluidi and Ericana a very special fifth pair. “As of now the babies are stable, but are under observation in the critical-care unit, and we are expecting that they will be fit enough to be shifted to the ward in another 5 – 7 days. Once the babies begin to feed and void well and are active, they will be discharged. They will be brought back 6 months from now for hypospadias repair and colostomies” added Dr. Sripathi . Dr. Edward Kiely, Paediatric and Neonatal Surgeon and Dr. Richard Howard – Anaesthetist both from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London were present to proctor the Apollo team during the course of the surgery. “In our 30 years, Apollo Hospitals has always been a pioneer in healthcare delivery and has continued to excel with world-class clinical outcomes. The case of Ericana and Eluidi was both unique and challenging. We are glad to have had the opportunity to give their strong-willed mother Grace a reason to be truly happy after nine months of agony and anticipation. We have once again demonstrated our prowess as a global destination for affordable yet world class healthcare” said Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Group of Hospitals . Conjoined twins, though rarely encountered, are seen in one in 200,000 deliveries. However, more than 60% of them are stillborn while 35% of the remaining dies within a few days or months of birth due to various causes. Conjoined twins can be joined at the chest, abdomen, back, buttock and head. Fusion at the buttocks (Pygopagus) is very rare and accounts for less than 17% of all conjoined twins. Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Vanagaram Surgical Team who successfully separated Pygopagus twins Ericana and Eluidi on December 16,2013 with Group Chairman Prathap C Reddy Before Seperation  After Seperation          

The chosen venue for the ABLF Awards was one that epitomizes the spirit and ambition of Dubai, and in turn, Asia, through its soaring 828 meters of unparalleled, contemporary architecture – the Burj Khalifa. The third edition of the ABLF Awards was held under the patronage of UAE’s most beloved leaders, H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al-Nahayan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development. An international event, the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards is Asia’s premier showcase of exemplary business enterprise celebrating the key drivers of the global economy. From its inception, the ABLF grown at a phenomenal pace, and is dubbed Asia’s most powerful business event. The ethos of the ABLF is crafted on three defining narratives: leadership, knowledge and inspiration. The ABLF Awards 2013 turned its spotlight on India’s most respected cardiologist and entrepreneur, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group. At the event, Dr. Reddy was honoured and celebrated as an exemplary leader who has stood strong in the face of the economic downturn and played a significant role in the story of ‘Asia Rising’. The ABLF Lifetime Achievement Award is a heartfelt felicitation of a true visionary. The prestigious ABLF Lifetime Achievement award once again recognized Chairman’s passion and commitment and that he consistently placed the community and country on his lead agenda. The award acknowledged Dr. Reddy’s vision to leave the world a better place and that he has spent a lifetime nurturing and sharing values of excellence, innovation and sustainability alongside social responsibilities and philanthropy. The Healer: Dr. Prathap Chandra Reddy and the Transformation of India, authored by the international author and columnist, Mr Pranay Gupte, who has held the key positions of Foreign Correspondent at the New York Times and Contributing Editor at Forbes was launched at the ABLF Awards 2013, and copies of the book were gifted to all the guests.  

The helpline was launched in the presence of Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals The ‘robotic surgery helpline’ (94306415) will be open 24 X 7 for patients to call and discuss, in detail with doctors, about procedures before deciding on a treatment course. Helpline services will be available in Arabic and English. Regarding the new services, Dr Reddy said, “”Robotic surgery is the in thing today and has been used to treat different ailments. It has been a strong focus for Apollo Hospital in recent years.”” After the launch of the helpline, Dr Reddy spoke about the strides India has made in the healthcare sector, noting that healthcare services in India are today as professional as anywhere in the world. Dr.Prathap C Reddy spoke about Apollo’s new initiative, the Personalised Health Check (PHC), which is a “”new health check process that involves a pre-test assessment of an individual’s health by a health assessment consultant, based on which a package of tests is designed to cater to the specific needs of the customer.”” Speaking about plans for Apollo’s branch in Oman, Dr.Prathap C Reddy said, “”We have done our best to reach out to the patients of Oman through the Apollo Medical Centre, Sugar Clinic and the telemedicine facility, through which people living in Oman connect with Apollo group doctors in India. Over 50,000 patients from Oman have visited Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad.”” Dr K. Hari Prasad, CEO, Apollo Hospitals Group, also spoke during the gathering. Top specialists from India, Dr Sajan K. Hegde, spine surgeon; Dr V. Rajagopal, urologist; Dr Vijay Anand Reddy, oncologist; and Dr Anand Kakkar, liver transplant surgeon, participated in the Continuing Medical Education session. V. T. Saileshwaran, managing director of Apollo Medical Centre Oman, welcomed Dr Reddy to Oman and thanked him for his unstinted support to the branch.  

Entire nation along with the mother of nine month old Ericana and Eludi from Tanzania will pray for their survival and speedy recovery Pygopagus twins account for 17 percent of conjoint twin population in the world. Most common in females, only four cases of successful separation in males have been reported in medical history. A defining moment in the lives of nine month old Ericana and Eludi, who have been joined at the tail end of their spines and sharing a single anus and rectum this surgery, if it succeeds, could possibly promise normal lives as two separate individuals. Conjoined twins, though rarely encountered, are seen in one in 200,000 deliveries. However, more than 60% of them are stillborn while 35% of the remaining dies within a few days or months of birth due to various causes. Conjoined twins can be joined at the chest, abdomen, back, buttock and head. Fusion at the buttocks (Pygopagus) is very rare and accounts for less than 17% of all conjoined twins. Live born Pygopagus twins are usually female in sex while male pygopagus twins are extremely rare. Till now in medical literature only 30 sets of Pygopagus twins have been reported out of which 26 were female and only four were male. From Kasumulu to Vanagaram- the story of Ericana & Eludi: In June 2013, a young mother from a small village called ‘Kasumulu’ in Tanzania came to Apollo Children’s Hospital in Chennai with her 5 month old conjoint twin boys. Nine months ago when she went for delivery to the dispensary in her village she was shifted to the District Hospital to undergo a cesarean section. But to the doctors surprise there was enormous difficulty in delivering the babies out of the uterus as they were joined at the back. The mother was told that separation of the babies was fraught with risk and she was sent to the Mohimbili Hospital in the capital Dar es Salaam by ambulance. It took three days to make this journey with the new-borns. At Mohimbili the doctors contacted the health officials for advice regarding further action. Apollo Hospitals Chennai is closely associated with the Tanzanian government by the Save a Childs Heart Initiative (SACHI). The babies were therefore shifted to Apollo Children’s Hospital in Chennai at four and a half months of age. After extensive work up it was found that the babies were joined at the tail end of the spines and shared a single anus and rectum. They were also found to have a single phallus and urinary passage. “This set of male pygopagus twins for which separation is being attempted at Apollo Hospitals Chennai is the first in India. A unique and challenging aspect of the separation is the fused phallus, which has to be delicately separated to give each baby a functional penis. However, the separation of these babies is a mammoth task, which will take around 14 – 16 hours. Given the complexities involved, a chosen team of 20 doctors from the specialties of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, paediatric surgery and paediatric urology will attempt the separation.” said Dr Venkat Sripathi, Senior Consultant paediatric Urologist, Apollo Children’s Hospital, who is leading the much anticipated surgery. Dr. Edward Kiely – Pediatric Surgeon from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has been invited to proctor the operation while Dr. Richard Howard – Anesthetist, also from Great Ormond Street Hospital will be there as an observer. Commenting on the case, Dr Roshini Gopinathan, Paediatric Plastic Surgeon, Apollo Children’s Hospital said, “The babies are now 9 months old and weigh 16 kgs. During the last five months tissue expanders have been placed in the back, buttocks and thighs so that skin flaps can be rotated to cover the large defects, which will be left after separation. However, we are positive that the separation of these babies fondly called ‘Ammukutty’ and ‘Chellakutty’ by the nurses in the Hospital will proceed uneventfully.” Apollo Specialty Hospital in Vanagaram is preparing itself for what could make history in the Indian medical fraternity. Sharing her excitement on Apollo attempting yet another medical marvel, Suneeta Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, said “The family has been with us for close to five months now and are very dear to us. In fact the babies have even learnt to say Thatha’ and ‘Athai’ and the mother has picked up a smattering of Tamil as well. We are glad that The Tanzanian government has generously funded part of the treatment while Apollo Hospitals has subsidized the remainder of the cost involved in the separation and after care. We are hopeful about a positive outcome under the care and expertise of our highly skilled surgeons who have been handpicked to operate on them.”  

Holders of the card, which will be issued at the bank’s discretion, will be able to avail discounts of 20 per cent for preventive health care packages at Apollo Hospitals, 15 per cent for in-patient and outpatient medical investigations, in-patient room rent, Apollo products at Apollo Pharmacy, 10 per cent for pharmaceutical products and 5 per cent for other products bought at Apollo Pharmacy. “With the launch of this card, we hope to provide access to quality healthcare services for our valued customers. We naturally chose to associate with Apollo Hospitals for this venture because they are a leader in corporate health-care in India,” said T M Bhasin, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Bank. Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, also said that the card fit in their mission to provide healthcare of international standards to every individual. “The launch of this card offers a convenient and affordable health solution to Indian Bank customers.” The card will initially be issued to 7,000 customers in Chennai as a pilot project and will eventually be issued to over 2 lakh customers all over India.  

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who spoke on the wisdom of compassion to patients and staff of the hospital, graced the event. Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group along with several dignitaries was also present on the occasion. The Apollo Hospitals has been a pioneer in organ transplantation in the country. The program with 1200 liver and kidney transplants in 2012 became the world’s busiest and while celebrating the anniversary, His Holiness The Dalai Lama applauded the patients and their families for the fortitude shown by them. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “Compassion is an understanding of the emotional state of another. It is a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another or to show special kindness to those who suffer. I am glad to be a part of this gathering, celebrating the joy of overcoming ailments and encouraging one and all to be part of promoting healthy living.” More than 200,000 Indians require organ transplantation annually An estimated 20,000 liver transplants are required per year in India It is estimated that one lac brain deaths take place per year in India Organ donation rate in India is 0.05 per million compared to 33 per millon in Spain Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Prathap C. Reddy said, “I on behalf of the entire Apollo family would like to thank His Holiness for gracing the occasion today. His Holiness is a global thought leader and to hear him today was as wonderful as ever. His enlightened words on compassion have left an indelible mark on me. We at Apollo Hospitals pledge to do our utmost to touch a billion lives in whatever way possible. A small step towards that is our pledge to sponsor and help five children of Tibetan origin with cardiac ailments at our hospitals every year. I would also like to congratulate our transplant team for becoming the world’s busiest in transplants. This is a testament to our expertise and untiring determination to make the nation proud.” Dr. Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals Group and Senior Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology said, “today indeed is a meaningful day as 200 transplant recipients and their families received blessings from His Holiness and they will share what was a truly divine experience with the 15300 other families who have received a liver or a kidney transplant at Apollo Hospitals. Our doctors, nurses and all the staff of our hospitals are fortunate to have received His Holiness’s blessings in person today” Apollo Hospitals, under the aegis of the Gift A Life (www.giftalife.org) initiative has been an active partner in advocating and undertaking activities aimed at promoting the cause of organ donation. The mission of Gift A Life is to ensure that no person in India dies for want of an organ. The initiative has been running successfully for the past two years, where the initiative has been associated with a varied likeminded institutions and partners across the country to conduct awareness drives amongst people on organ donation.

Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, have adopted ‘Sharan’, a white tiger, for a period of one year under the animal adoption scheme offered at the Nehru Zoological Park. The zoo said till date there had been 32 animal adoptions for which it received Rs. 56.28 lakh and described the response to the scheme as ‘encouraging’ and said efforts will continue for more participation.  

Apollo Hospitals performed the first heart transplant surgery from its facility in Hyderabad on a 19-year old student, Veer Anjaneyulu, suffering with dilated cardiomyopathy. The case is related to end-stage heart failure leading to depression of heart muscle. The operation was performed on 11th November by Dr Vijay Dixit, Chief of Cardiothoracic surgery, Apollo Hospitals. Dilated cardiomyopathy was very common in India and can be treated through drugs. However, in cases where it can’t be cured it leads to end-stage failure which would be dealt only through a heart transplant. In this particular case, the hospital was supported by Jeevandan Project of the Andhra Pradesh government, and the city’s traffic Police in successfully harvesting the donor heart and transporting it to the hospital.  

UPA Chairperson and Congress Party President,Smt. Sonia Gandhi felicitated India’s first successful liver transplant recipient, Sanjay Kandasamy from Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu who had undergone a liver transplant in November 1998 at Apollo Hospitals Delhi. On the 15th anniversary of successful liver transplantation in India, Smt. Gandhi interacted with Sanjay and his family and said, “It is wonderful to see how the young infant in dire need of a transplant is today a healthy young man who himself wants to become a doctor. It is a testament not only on India’s medical acumen but also of the tenacity of this young man. I wish him and his family the very best for the future and I would like to congratulate the institution for establishing liver transplantation in our country“. Sanjay was born with a rare condition called Biliary Atresia, which is seen in 1 in 12000 babies. This is a condition in which there is no connection between the liver and the intestine so the bile produced in the liver cannot be excreted and therefore damages the liver. These babies develop jaundice a few days after birth and the jaundice progressively increases. An operation to create bile flow, if performed before the age of 2 months can prevent liver failure. Unfortunately in India, most babies with biliary atresia are diagnosed after the age of 3 months making this operation unsuccessful. This happened in Sanjay’s case. Since his condition was deteriorating because of liver failure, his family decided to come to Delhi as a liver transplantation program was being established at Apollo Hospitals Delhi. Sanjay’s father came forward to donate a part of his liver to give his son a new lease of life. Sanjay became the first child to undergone a liver transplant in India on 15th November 1998 and made medical history. Dr Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “The success of the liver transplantation has established the low cost – high quality value proposition that India offers and has enhanced the reputation of Indian healthcare globally. The outcomes are comparable to the best in the West with a cost which is one tenth”. According to Dr.AnupamSibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Apollo Hospitals Group, “Sanjay now leads a completely normal life, goes to school like other kids, enjoys meals, plays football, wants to become a doctor to save lives. Sanjay’s success helped establish liver transplantation in India. The Apollo Transplant Program has now performed more than 1500 liver transplants, out of which more than 700 have been performed in the last two years. By performing 1200 solid organ transplants in 2012, the Apollo Transplant Program became the busiest solid organ transplant in the world. Today, we would like to thank Sanjay’s family for their faith in us which helped the program achieve this landmark”.  

A memorandum of understanding was signed between Apollo Group and CSC under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology in Delhi. Apollo Hospitals started telemedicine 13 years back, in an effort to bring healthcare closer to patients of both urban and rural areas. Apollo Tele Health Services, a group company of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited, has signed a MoU with CSC. This collaboration is aimed at providing primary, preventive and promotive healthcare through tele consultation to rural patients from telemedicine speciality centres situated within Apollo hospitals across various locations in the country and will run virtual clinics for patients using telemedicine technology. This is the first time in the country that healthcare services are being delivered using information and communication technology at a large scale. Speaking on the occasion, Apollo Hospitals, Executive Director, Sangita Reddy said that the group planned to make healthcare available to more than 1,00,000 CSC centres using telemedicine platform under its Rural Connect programme. The Common Services Centres Scheme, being the corner stone initiative through the National e-Governance plan of India, is a milestone achievement in creating a structured change agent for socially inclusive community action, according to CSC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dinesh Kumar Tyagi. Apollo Tele Health Services, CEO, Vikram Thaploo said the rural connect programme was designed to be socially relevant, financially sustainable and a scalable model. He also added that 112 centres were made operational under this tie-up.  

A medical revolution has been launched under County Group of Hospitals of Kumasi and Apollo Group of Hospitals in India, following the launch of telemedicine in Ghana at the Abenkyiman Hospital at Anhwiankwanta in the Bekwai Municipality. Apollo Hospitals is the largest telemedicine provider in India with 71 centres. Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technology in order to provide clinical health care from a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers, and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations. Early forms of telemedicine achieved with telephone and radio have been supplemented with video telephony, advanced diagnostic methods, supported by distributed client/server applications, and additionally, with telemedical devices to support in-home care. Telemedicine, by which the best healthcare is brought to everybody through the expertise of highly qualified doctors through technology, was successfully launched at the Abenkyiman Hospital on Nov 8 2013. The partnership, initiated by Dr. Kwame Antwi, Chief Executive Officer of County Hospitals, is to exploit the clinical excellence of the Indian counterparts. A group of medical experts from India are currently doing feasibility studies towards establishing a referral centre in telemedicine in the next years. Dr. K. Hari Prasad, Chief Executive of Apollo Hospitals, an expert in acute stroke treatment, who is leading a group of nine medical experts, said the team would also launch a “”medical camp””, where specialists would avail their expertise and services to clients in the treatment and management of kidney, liver and stroke, among other ailments, at Abenkyiman. The Apollo Chief Executive gave the assurance that about 85,000 medical experts involved in Apollo would support Dr. Antwi to realise his vision of making Abenkyiman a destination of excellence in telemedicine in Ghana. Dr. Kwame Antwi said services at the centre were affordable, and that it would cost between GHÇ50 and GHÇ100 to access telemedicine, through which patients would be connected to the best doctors around the globe. The Member of Parliament for Bekwai, Joseph Osei-Owusu, who witnessed the launching of the technology, commended Dr. Antwi for the foresight and championing the introduction of telemedicine in Ghana, and hoped Ghanaians would take advantage of the facility, which is intended to further enhance quality healthcare delivery.  

The award is given in recognition of the exemplary effort, commitment and dedication to leveraging on healthcare ICT to transform patient care and outcome. The award was presented at the HIMSS Digital Healthcare Week in Singapore, on 21 October 2013. The award was presented by Stephen Lieber, President and CEO of HIMSS worldwide and Gerrit Bos, Managing Director APAC, Elsevier. Ms. Sangita Reddy received the awards on behalf of the group. Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Reddy said “With patient centricity at the core, Apollo Hospitals has continuously focused on initiatives that provide superior patient care and comfort. The Apollo Prism initiative resonates perfectly with our ethos and helps us in providing our patients with secure and convenient access to their medical information, irrespective of their location across the world. We do believe that Apollo Prism representing a robust medical record will encourage individuals to stay more engaged with their health and in turn enhance clinical outcomes and also reduce unnecessary costs”. Ms. Reddy further added, “Apollo Prism has been launched across all Apollo Hospitals locations and has been tightly integrated with Hospital Information System across locations, thus providing clinically validated information to patients, who come to Apollo Hospitals. Patients can also download the mobile application of Apollo Prism that lets them receive their lab test results on their phone. Apollo Prism is also an interface for diabetic patients, for managing their diabetes. Thus, beyond helping a patient to track and manage their health information, the PHR enables continuous, preventive and wellness support.” “We would like to congratulate the HIMSS-Elsevier Digital Healthcare Awards winners. We received nominations from across the Asia Pacific region such as China, Hong Kong, India, Korea and Singapore. The winners have demonstrated superior implementation and utilization of health IT systems that have directly resulted in organization-wide advancements in patient care and operational efficiencies. We hope that their projects will inspire a new wave of IT advancement in the healthcare delivery,” said Steven Yeo, Vice President & Executive Director, HIMSS Asia Pacific, General Manager, HIMSS Analytics Asia Pacific & Middle East. “It is exciting and encouraging to witness how the Asia Pacific healthcare industry is embracing the transformational role of technology to harness the power of medical information. The organizations recognized for the HIMSS-Elsevier Digital Healthcare Award have demonstrated how technology adoption can achieve efficiencies and improve quality of care. It is for this very reason that Elsevier is proud to support and celebrate this innovative spirit of the community,” said Gerrit Bos, Managing Director APAC, Elsevier. Apollo Hospitals in collaboration with Health Hiway, a cloud based Health Information Network had launched its highly secure, web-based Personal Health Record (PHR) – Apollo Prism Headquartered in Bangalore. Health Hiway is a cloud based health information network that enables seamless exchange of health information – data sharing and transactional – between hospitals, clinics, diagnostics, insurers, doctors and Patients.