On May 16, 1962, Dr Denton Cooley performed the first bloodless open heart surgery on one of Jehovah's Witnesses - a feat hitherto thought to be impossible. Dr Cooley elevated the art of surgery, and came to be widely known as the Father of Bloodless Surgery. On World Bloodless Surgery Day 61 years later, a master cardiac surgeon, Dr Valluvan Jeevanandam, delivers a scinitillating keynote address on how and why bloodless cardiac surgery is the ultimate art of surgery.
Valluvan Jeevanandam, MD, specializes in the surgical management of heart failure, and is an expert in high-risk cardiac surgery. Dr. Jeevanandam has performed over 1500 heart transplants and has a special interest in treating patients traditionally considered inoperable. He has reconstructed damaged hearts in many patients awaiting transplant, enabling those patients to forgo transplantation. He also has successfully performed transplants involving patients who do not fit the standard criteria. Additionally, Dr. Jeevanandam has received national attention for his skill in performing bloodless complex cardiac surgery , which requires the use of precise surgical techniques to minimize blood loss during the procedure — sparing the need for a blood transfusion. He is a pioneer in the field of mechanical circulatory support, and throughout his career has performed first-in-human device implants, and nearly 500 durable LVAD surgeries. Dr. Jeevanandam was one of the physicians leaders of the transplant care team that made history in December 2018 after performing two triple-organ transplants within 27 hours, replacing the failing hearts, livers and kidneys of two 29 year old patients. He has performed the heart transplantation operation for all 13, heart/liver/kidney transplants at The University of Chicago. The heart transplant program, using data from the latest report from the US Department of Health and Human Services, is the best in the USA with regard to patient survival and shortest wait list times. In addition, the UCM program is the only program offering and performing heart transplants and LVADs for patients refusing blood transfusions.
