Senior Consultant in the Care of critically Ill Children, University Hospitals of Leicester, UK
Honorary Senior Lecturer, The Leicester Medical School
A personal tragedy that I suffered as a young child helped shape me and my approach to life. Simultaneously it gave me a heightened sense of awareness of the poverty, inequity and deprivation that surrounded me in India. Having attended medical college in India and then moving to the USA followed by the UK, I wanted to give something back to society by using my skills and knowledge as a Paediatric Intensivist. I was brought up to understand the importance of helping people and giving back to those that need it the most. My mission was clear – to create a Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) revolution that gives every child with CHD the opportunity to live. It is with these fundamental beliefs in mind that Healing Little Hearts was founded.
I have been a Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, UK since 2010 and I also work at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital. My special interests include neonatal heart surgery, complex intra cardiac and bi-ventricular repairs, pectus and chest wall reconstructive surgery, humanitarian surgery and international work.
I have been associated with the Healing Little Hearts Charity since 2009. I have performed over 300 open heart surgeries for the charity in 5 countries. I enjoy every camp and like going to new places.
Healing Little Hearts provides a sense of fulfilment in life by being able to use my skills to save the lives of poor children across the globe. I also immensely benefit from the camps by learning new things, improving my surgical skills and innovating surgical techniques with limited resources, networking and making new friends. I also enjoy the training elements of the camps and am very much interested in developing sustainable local care delivered by the local teams in deprived areas of the world. My association and work with the charity is one of the best things to have happened to me in life. Apart from being a surgeon, I was also involved in a lot of fund raising activities for the charity.
I have been a recipient of a Heart Hero (Health Care) award from the British Heart Foundation in 2019.
I am a consultant at Alder Hey Hospital and Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital in Liverpool since 2019. My training in congenital cardiology has been across the three London centres – Great Ormond Street Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital. I am also part of the medical board which discusses complex cases seen by Healing Little Hearts which need to be operated in other established centres. My special interests are percutaneous valve implantation, complex neonatal interventions and sustainable international congenital care.
I am currently working with various groups in Liverpool and London in establishing international health as a partnership with the UK government.
I joined Healing Little Hearts in 2016 after several years of research in CHD care in East Africa. I have been leading the expansion of the charity’s reach in East Africa and helping with setting up our work in other parts of the world. My aim, which I share with the charity, is to set up a Congenital Heart Centre in Kenya. I am very passionate about our work and spend most of my free time working on various projects in East Africa and beyond.
My work in the charity has been extremely fulfilling. I enjoy meeting new members in each camp and expanding our network. Each camp represents an opportunity not only to teach but also to learn from talented individuals from all over the world. In the process my role in the charity has resulted in very strong links with India, Spain, Italy and the United States.
I focus on increasing the charity’s reach, fund raising and developing relationships with medical companies to establish an infrastructure in the places we visit. Additionally I ensure we create awareness about the challenge of congenital heart care in low and middle income countries.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi
My journey with Healing Little Hearts began in 2014. It was here I was given the opportunity to truly make a difference and help people. Being a nurse for over 30 years and having volunteered on camps I realised I could give more to this wonderful charity.
Over time my role has evolved and grown enormously. My core task is to help put teams together, forging long standing relationships with medical and nursing volunteers and also those in our partner hospitals. I manage all our databases to ensure we comply with governance. I also manage all social media platforms.
One of my roles is to support our many fundraisers which I feel is a privilege – many have become my friends.
I feel honoured to be a part of Healing Little Hearts journey, it is an extremely important part of my life.
I have a full time, very busy paid job and still negotiate time to fulfilling my roles within HLH. Time is never an issue when you are doing something you love!
Life is not measured by the moments that take your breath away but by the number of breaths that you help others take.
Dr. Sanjiv Nichani, OBE
I trained as an accountant, and my career was spent in a variety of finance-related roles – for businesses as diverse as retail, electricity, drycleaning and paper merchanting! Now retired, I am enjoying using my experience to add value to Healing Little Hearts.
The work of the charity is literally life-saving, and has grown to be a significant enterprise. My role is to help it to operate effectively with minimal overheads and maximum value channelled to our patients.
I live in Northamptonshire, with my wife (and Milly the French bulldog), and have three children and six grandchildren, aged from six to 22. I am a keen golfer and also keep fit with a recently-acquired electric bike.
I went to school in Zimbabwe, and have travelled extensively, so I understand something of how other countries operate, and how valuable are the efforts of Healing Little Hearts.