HISTORY OF PAEDIATRIC SURGERY

The department was founded by Professor Dr. N.C.K REDDY M.S. (P.G.I.), M.Ch. (AIIMS), on July 8th 1984 with bed strength of 12. He was instrumental in establishment of the Department of Paediatric Surgery in Rangaraya Medical College and has greatly contributed with his extraordinary skills in the field of Paediatric Surgery for the country. He has continued in the department till 1989 assisted by Dr.S.Raj Kumar M.S., and later went on to Niloufer Hospital & Institute of Child Health. For quite a period of time, after 1988, till 1992 and again between 1998 till 2002 & between 2005 till 2006, the department faced tough times due to a dearth of qualified Paediatric Surgeons. But then it was gracefully embraced by the department of General Surgery and the gaps were filled in by a few committed General Surgeons with special interest in Paediatric Surgery who held the fort in absence of a dedicated team. In August 1992 the institute had the honor of hosting another skillful Paediatric Surgeon – Dr.P.Subbarao M.S., M.Ch., who was again trained from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and has solely run the department till February 1994 when Dr.Radha Krishnamurthy M.S.,M.Ch., has taken charge as the Professor of Paediatric Surgery. Dr. RadhaKrishnamurthy along with Dr. Subbarao has taken the department to new heights between 1993 till 1998 performing complex paediatric and neonatal surgeries and benefitting the poor people of the Godavari as well as adjacent districts and the tribal population around the emerging town of Kakinada. He was succeeded by Dr.S.RamaSwamy M.S., M.Ch in May 2001 till September 2002 followed by Dr. V.Chandrasekharam M.S., M.Ch., from October 2002 till September 2003. Dr. Chandrasekharam along with his deputy – Dr.DSVL Narasimham M.S., for the following one year, rekindled the past glory to the department with his meticulous skills. The present department of Paediatric Surgery from October 2003 till June 2005 and again from November 2009 till July 2012 was headed by the only qualified Lady Paediatric Surgeon in Costal Andhra Pradesh - Dr.K.Kameswari M.S., M.Ch. Between November  2009 & July 2012, the department was ran with full strength of three qualified paediatric surgeons – Dr. K.Kameswari as the Professor assisted by two dynamic next generation Paediatric Surgeons - Dr.J.Bhaskar Reddy & Dr.D.Kalyan Ravi Prasad. Later,              Dr. Kameswari has taken charge of the Department at Andhra medical College and continued to take the charge of the department in Rangaraya Medical College as well. After her retirement in 2014, the department has been running with Dr. G. Rajendra Prasad as the incharge Head till date. The feather in the cap for this department is the initiation of M.Ch Superspeciality training programme in 2013 with sanction of 2 seats by the Medical Council of India.