The Steady Heart of the Operating Theatre: The Story of Dr. Ganesh Kumar Mani

In the bustling lanes of Delhi, a boy named Ganesh Kumar Mani grew up watching the city’s pulse. Born on 18 November 1954, he attended MEAHS School and finished his higher secondary studies in 1964. Even as a teenager he felt drawn to the quiet drama of saving lives.

“I want to work with the heart,” he once told a school friend. “It never rests, and neither should we when someone needs help.”

He entered Maulana Azad Medical College, graduating MBBS in 1969 and completing his MS in General Surgery from the same institution in 1975. Seeking deeper mastery, he moved south to the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore. There he earned his MCh in Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1979 and, a year later, the MNAMS in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.

Further training took him to Australia—Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, St Vincent’s Hospital, and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne—where he refined skills in advanced coronary bypass and paediatric cardiac surgery.

Returning to India, he began as a faculty member at CMC Vellore, then served as Specialist Surgeon at the Indian Railways Southern Railway Headquarters Hospital in Perambur, Tamil Nadu. In 1989 he became Chief Cardiac Surgeon and Director of Cardiac Surgery at Batra Hospital in Delhi. Later roles followed at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi Heart and Lung Institute, and finally as Chairman of Cardiac Sciences and Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery at Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital (formerly Saket City Hospital) in Saket.

Over a career spanning more than four decades he has performed over 20,000 cardiac surgeries—among them more than 8,000 off-pump, or “beating-heart,” coronary artery bypasses. In 2000 he introduced the beating-heart technique in Delhi, using the patient’s own blood (autologous transfusion) and almost eliminating the need for donor blood. He once completed 500 consecutive bypasses with zero mortality and brought the morbidity rate in his units down from 20 percent to just one percent.

One story he still recalls with quiet pride involves his friend, Padma Vibhushan Dr. E. Sreedharan, the legendary “Metro Man.” Sreedharan collapsed at the airport with multiple blockages. Mani prepared the operating theatre at Apollo, temporary pacemakers ready. The next day he operated successfully.

“I was confused about the strategy at first,” Mani later said. “But when the moment came, the only thought was to save a friend. I feel happy and proud whenever I remember that day.”

He has operated on many public figures and ordinary patients alike, always insisting on the same standard of care. Colleagues and patients describe him as one of the safest cardiac surgeons in the country—calm under pressure, meticulous, and deeply human.

Married to Manju since 7 July 1973, the couple has two children. Together they manage Mani Heart Care. They live in Greater Kailash I, Delhi, where he also participates in community health programmes and basic life-support training.

Awards have followed: the National Citizens Award in 1992 (presented by the Vice-President), the National Excellence Award in 1996 (from former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar), and in 2013 the Padma Shri from the President of India for his contributions to medicine and medical education. Many other honours from the IMA, DMA, and professional bodies have come his way.

One evening, after a long day of surgeries, a young resident asked him, “Sir, after twenty thousand hearts, what still moves you?”

Dr. Ganesh Kumar Mani smiled gently. “Every heart that beats again after we finish. That sound is the best music in the world. And the patient who walks out of the hospital—that is the only reward that matters.”

And so the boy from Delhi who decided the heart should never be left alone continues his work—steady hands, quiet courage, and a lifetime of second chances given freely.