Mysuru: Dr Manjunath, a doctor with big heart

Mysuru: "It is a privilege to inaugurate world the famous Dasara festival on behalf of six-and-a-half crore people of Karnataka. This is the greatest honour accorded to the medical fraternity and all the front line warriors," said Dr C N Manjunath, director of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research.

He shared his happy moment with The Hans India on being chosen by the State government for the honour.

He said, "This year, Mysuru Dasara is going to be a simple affair in view of the Covid-19 threat. Yet most important thing that the people should remember is to follow all the guidelines issued by the Dasara committee and the State government and take all precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. All the precautionary measures which are already in place should be strictly followed because this congregation should not become the source of spreading the infection," he said.

Dr Manjunath who has been advising State government and creating awareness on controlling the spread of Covid-19, ever since the first case was reported in the State in March, said, "People should wear masks properly and that is the only thing we have in our hand now to control the spread of the virus. They should not remove it while speaking as that is the time when the virus spreads to others. This is the only weapon to beat the virus as it will take some time for vaccine to become available in the market.

The number of tests have touched one crore mark per day in the State which is good. Because testing, early isolation, providing treatment to the needy at the earliest possible right is the only way to limit the spread of the pandemic, and keep the fatality rate as low as possible. People have to cooperate with the government for effective management," he said.

Born to Nanjappa and Hombamma in Cholenahally in Channarayapatna taluk in Hassan district, Dr Manjunath is married to Dr Anusuya Manjunath, daughter of former Prime Minister Mr H D Devegowda. And his son Dr Satvic C Manjunath is cardiologist, too, and his daughter Dr Namratha is a dermatologist.

Dr Manjunath did his MBBS from Mysore Medical College, MD in General Medicine from Bengalore Medical College, and DM in cardiology from KMC Mangaluru. He has 34 years of teaching experience and has performed more than 30,000 cardiac surgeries. And he has done free angioplasty treatment for over 1500 patients and free open heart surgeries for over 2000 patients. He has conducted 200 free angioplasties in just five days, which is a world record.

As director of Jayadeva hospital, he has brought revolutionary changes and proved that government institutions can function like any other corporate hospital. Under his leadership the hospital has treated 50 lakh patients and conducted five lakh operations/ interventions.

He has introduced free treatment for poor patients from SC and ST families. He has mobilized more than Rs 50 crore donations from various charitable organizations and built a corpus fund to provide free treatment to the poor. He is the architect of "Hrudaya Sanjeevini scheme for the poor. Under this scheme annually 7500 BPL patients get free heart surgeries. He has tied up with more than 25 charitable organizations to perform free 800-1000 open heart surgeries and angioplasties every year.

The hospital has recorded 500 percent overall growth and the bed strength has increased from 330 to 1250 exclusively for cardiac care, 28 new facilities including a cardiac rehabiliatation centre have been added to it in the past 10 years. He has also taken affordable cardiac care across the State by being instrumental in starting branches of Jayadeva hospital with 'state-of-the-art facilities at Mysuru and Kalaburagi. He has donated two acres of land for a PHC in his native village.

For innumerable achievements, he has received over 34 awards from government and various organizations in Karnataka and other States. He is the recipient of Padma Shree award (2007), Sir M Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist award (2019) from Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru. He is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from Karnataka State Open University, Mysuru (2011) Mangala University, Mangaluru (2016), honorary doctorate of science from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore (2012) and Bangalore University, Bengaluru (2019).

Dr. C.N.Manjunath has innovated a new technique of performing Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty in difficult cases, which is being called Manjunath's Technique. Because of this work, Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty operation has become cheaper by 30 to 40 percent. He has more than 300 publications in international and national journals.