Clinical Work

Established the division of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology, the first in the private sector in India at Apollo Hospital, Delhi in 1997.

Created the first nationally approved 2-year training fellowship (Fellowship of NBE) in India in 2014, the first annual hands on pediatric endoscopy course in South Asia in 2014 and the first annual training program for pediatric gastroenterology hepatology and nutrition in India in 2011.

Helped set up the first successful pediatric liver transplant program in India in 1998 at Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. The Apollo Transplant Program has been the busiest solid organ transplant program in the world since 2012. The Apollo Transplant Program has performed more than 4600 liver transplants out of which more than 570 have been in children, the highest in India.

The first successful pediatric liver transplant in India was performed at Apollo Delhi in November 1998 in a seventeen-month-old boy, Sanjay Kandasamy.

Sanjay Kandasamy was born with Biliary Atresia, which is seen in one in 12,000 babies. In this condition, there is no connection between the liver and the intestine. So the bile produced in the liver cannot be excreted, thus resulting in cirrhosis.

Sanjay’s condition was deteriorating by the day, so 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 and grant his son a new lease of life. On 15th November 1998, at the age of two, Sanjay became the first child to undergo a successful liver transplant in India and made medical history. Over the years, he has led a normal life, excelled at school, played football, and has turned out to be an inspiring young man. Sanjay now works as a doctor and is happily married.