The Unofficial Fan Website.

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian has been compared to Mother Theresa, especially by poor families in India that have a child living with a congenital heart defect.

Dr. Sivasubramanian, better known simply as “Dr. Mani,” is a well known author that handles health-related topics online. His first calling in life was cardiology. He has performed lifesaving heart operations for numerous children.

Already impacted by the work of heart surgeon Dr. Denton A. Cooley, founder of the Texas Heart Institute, Dr. Mani had made a decision to become a heart surgeon himself.  In 1989 Dr. Mani read a quote in a medical journal by a neurosurgeon named Dr. Tom Peters, who said: “I don’t accept children dying.”  Dr. Mani realized he didn’t accept children dying either.

In fact, that same year Dr. Mani lost his own eight year old niece to kidney disease.  He regularly watched other children and young people die from illness.  He had watched as doctors that he worked with became hardened to death and suffering.  He vowed that, even though he witnessed suffering every day, death would not become just a routine part of his job as a physician.

Dr. Mani knew he that, as a heart surgeon, he could make a tremendous impact on the lives of children with congenital heart defects. But he wasn’t satisfied with simply staying in the hospital and wielding a scalpel.  He wanted to get involved with the families of the children, real human beings, whose lives were turned upside-down by the misfortune of being born with a heart defect.

So, in 2003, he launched the Dr. Mani Children Heart Foundation. Dr. Mani also became a well known and award winning Internet and business entrepreneur. He has raised over $84,000 to provide life saving heart operations for children whose families could not otherwise afford the operations.  The children helped by Dr. Mani’s foundation would likely have died without his intervention.

Dr. Mani continues to raise awareness about congenital heart disease around the world.  His foundation maintains a growing base of supporters, currently at approximately 700 members.  He also sponsors major fundraising events.  One of these is The Heart Kids Blogathon, an annual event which was started in 2003.  He and his foundation are also an integral part of “A Day for Hearts,” a fundraising event that falls on February 14 each year.  The day is dedicated to raising awareness of, and generating support for, congenital heart disease.

Dr. Mani accepts that life isn’t always fair. But he also knows that it only takes a little bit of dedication to “tweak the odds in our favor.”