December 5, 2008 — Exercise every day and the heart doctor may stay away. However, for those who need a cardiac specialist, Odessa has one who's been named a Super Doctor.

Fellow physicians nominated Dr. Suresh Gadasalli, of The Healthy Heart Center, as a "Super Doctor" in the December issue of Texas Monthly magazine. This is the second year he's received the honor.

"It feels great. I am humbled and honored," he said. Gadasalli specializes in Diagnostic Cardiology, Coronary Angioplasty and Intervention.

Gadasalli opened his practice here 15 years ago, but he does not just limit himself to Odessa. He has an outreach program in other West Texas areas including Monahans, Kermit, Pecos, Fort Stockton, Andrews and Alpine. He performs consultations, and if a patient needs further treatment or a procedure, he brings them back to the Odessa facility.

"We are very caring and compassionate. I want them to feel like they are members of my own family, and they are genuinely being taken care of. We take an interest in their well-being," he said.

Gadasalli stressed the importance of prevention. That is why he said daily exercise is the best form of prevention and a way to ensure a healthier heart. "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."

Gadasalli said West Texas has been a welcoming place to practice. After moving from Wisconsin, he said he found the community warm, welcoming and friendly.

Being a physician means being a lifelong learner. Dr. Suresh Gadasalli attends national level conferences and keeps up with current periodicals and medical journals. In addition, he is a member of the Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

"Empty Stocking Fund" Challenge

He's tried to give back through various charities in the area including the United Way, the Children's Miracle Network and the Salvation Army. During Christmastime, he has what he calls the Gadasalli Challenge. He challenges other area physicians to contribute to the Empty Stocking Fund and to reach or exceed the donation goal of the Odessa American and the Salvation Army for the fund. He said he had every intention of helping the Empty Stocking exceed this year's goal of $75,000. Gadasalli also donates to the ECISD Education Foundation and donated the building near Permian High School that houses the Gadasalli Fine Arts Center.

Dr. Suresh Gadasalli is challenging area doctors to help the Salvation Army's Empty Stocking Fund reach or exceed the donations of the Odessa American. The OA contributes $4,000 annually to match the first $4,000 raised for the fund. The fund goes to help families with a Christmas meal and small gifts for children.

Donations may be mailed or delivered to the Salvation Army Community Center, 810 E. 11th St., or the Odessa American, 222 E. Fourth St. Zip codes for both are 79761.

For information, call the Odessa American at 333-7714, or the Salvation Army at 332-0738.

About "Super Doctors"

Key Professional Media asked medical professionals, "If you needed medical care, which doctor would you choose?" These physicians are told to nominate doctors, aside from themselves, whom they believe offer superb care to their patients and would entrust their own health to.

Bill White is the publisher of Law & Politics Magazine, a Key Professional Media publication, and he said, the goal is to invite every physician in the state to participate in the nomination process. He said 38,000 invitations to Texas doctors were sent out.

After interviews and discipline record checks, Key Professional Media then reports the results to various publications, including Texas Monthly.

[This article Copyright © 2008 Odessa American Online. All rights reserved.]

November 28, 2007 — An Odessa cardiologist has been named a “super doctor” by Texas Monthly.

Dr. Suresh Gadasalli, of The Healthy Heart Center 500 E. Fifth St., will appear in the December issue of Texas Monthly.

Key Professional Media, in connection with Texas Monthly, surveys more than 37,000 doctors each year with a ballot asking the medical professionals to nominate one or more doctors other than themselves. The questions specifically asks: If you needed medical care, which doctor would you choose?

Gadasalli has been in practice in Odessa since 1994.

[This article Copyright © 2007 Odessa American Online. All rights reserved.]

October 13, 2007 — United Way of Odessa recently recognized Dr. Suresh and Arathi Gadasalli with a Lifetime Achievement Award at United Way’s annual Pillars party Oct. 4.

From left: Buz Browning, United Way Pillars
chair; Arathi and Dr. Suresh Gadasalli;
Jack Wood, United Way campaign chair

The award is given to those who reach a significant contributing milestone within United Way’s giving level.

Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include John and Carol Bushman and Clay and Louise Wood.

Dr. Gadasalli started his private practice in 1994 and is now the director and cardiologist of the Healthy Heart Center.

The United Way has four priority impact areas for funding: helping kids succeed, assisting people in crisis, meeting basic needs and building strong families.

Campaign donations fund 29 programs in 17 agencies.

For more information, please contact Brandi Alexander, community relations director, at 332-0941.

[This article Copyright © 2007 Odessa American Online. All rights reserved.]

In October, 2006, Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union and Nobel Laureate spoke in Odessa as a participant in the Distinguised Lecture Series of the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute.

Below is a photo of Dr. Gadasalli and his wife, Arathi greet President Gorbachev on the campus of UTPB.

August 19, 2005 – When Alpine’s Rita Perry had chest pains while riding her bike, she didn’t anticipate she would have a surgical procedure that had never been performed before.

Drs. Gadasalli (left) and Srivastava
Photo by Cindeka Nealy
Odessa American © 2005

“It was a humbling experience. Those good doctors are going to help so many people,” Perry, 72, said Thursday from her home.

Performed at Alliance Hospital by Drs. Suresh Gadasalli and Sudhir Srivastava, the surgery was the world’s first simultaneous hybrid revascularization — two major procedures, coronary artery bypass and stent placement, occurring concurrently.

Though the surgery was about to be performed for the first time, Perry said she wasn’t afraid at all.

“I trusted the doctors,” she said. “I wasn’t scared. I’ve never had any fear, and with the help of God, I knew I’d be OK.”

A similar surgery had recently taken place in Innsbrook, Austria, Srivastava said at a news conference on Wednesday; however, that patient’s heart was stopped unlike Perry’s, making this surgery unique.

Srivastava performed the bypass utilizing the hospital’s $1.2 million robotic da Vinci Surgical System from a console.

Unlike the traditional method of splitting patients sternums, Srivastava said that Perry’s bypass was done remotely through four, fingertip-size incisions.

“This allows the patient less pain and quicker recovery time,” Srivastava said. “And the recovery time is greater also because both procedures are done at once. So the patient doesn’t stay in the hospital for weeks between the two procedures.”

The simultaneous hybrid revascularization, Srivastava added, equates to cost-savings for patients since they’ll spend fewer days in the hospital.

Perry said she went to the hospital last Wednesday and was released Friday evening.

Though the two procedures are combined, Gadasalli said that the potential risk factors of the individual procedures don’t increase with the combined surgery.

“The risk is close to zero,” Gadasalli said.

Now that stents are medically coated with Paclitaxel, Gadasalli added, there is less likelihood of tissue scarring.

Perry’s stent placement was delivered through an incision in her groin area, meaning that the hybrid revascularization was a closed-heart surgery.

Primary candidates for hybrid revascularization are patients that have two vessel blockages, Gadasalli said.

Physicians from around the U.S. and abroad have been coming to Alliance Hospital to learn about the technique, Srivastava said. Doctors from Milwaukee viewed Perry’s surgery.

Worldwide, there are about 300 medical facilities with similar capabilities, according to Srivastava, and about a dozen of those are in Texas.

“Most of those (medical) centers focus on urology,” he said.

Srivastava said there are plans to further Alliance hospital’s educational contributions by partnering with Texas Tech.

Perry is confident that she’ll be fully-recovered very soon.

“There’s a lot of soreness, but that’s like any surgery,” she said. “I’ll be better.”

Perry, who became aware of the two doctors through a referral, recommends their services to anyone.

“I didn’t want any bruising, so the surgery sounded great to me,” Perry said. “I do have a little bruising, but I’m very grateful to these doctors.”

Click here to see a screenshot of the front page of the Odessa American featuring the preceding story.

[This article © Odessa American 2005. All rights reserved.]

August 18, 2005 – Last week two doctors at Odessa's Alliance Hospital performed the world's first simultaneous hybrid revascularization.

The procedure, which employs the use of a robotic surgical system, allows patients suffering from multiple coronary artery disease to receive less invasive and less costly treatment.

Drs. Sudhir Srivastava and Suresh Gadasalli treated Rita Perry, a 72-year-old woman who had been suffering from symptoms of exertional chest pain and shortness of breath. Perry was found to have two blocked arteries, which hospital staff treated through hybrid revascularization, a combination of coronary bypass surgery and angioplasty. Perry left the hospital within two days of the procedure with minimal pain that was treatable with Tylenol, according to hospital officials.

In previous instances involving patients with multiple coronary artery disease, bypass operations and angioplasties had been performed at separate times, extending the length of the patient's hospital stay and increasing the size of their bill. Srivastava said the simultaneous performance of bypasses and angioplasties could reduce a patient's hospital costs by several thousand dollars.

The use of the da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic assistant that allows doctors to perform bypasses and other procedures remotely, removes the need to split the patient's sternum to perform a coronary bypass, allowing patients to recover more quickly and with less pain. Srivastava said the da Vinci system provides doctors with a 3-D view of the target area, magnified 10 times on the console the surgeon uses to operate the millimeter-sized surgical implements.

The bypass was performed through four, finger-sized incisions, according to Sriviastava, and the coronary angioplasty and stent placement were done through a small puncture hole in the groin area.

Srivastava said doctors at the hospital had previously performed 17 hybrid revascularization surgeries, but this was the first instance in the world in which a coronary bypass was performed at the same time as an angioplasty.

"This is a really exciting time for us and for cardiovascular treatment in general," Gadasalli said during a conference held this week pertaining to the procedure.

Gadasalli said candidates for this kind of treatment are people who have two or more diseased coronary arteries. He added 60 to 65 percent of people with coronary artery disease have two or more afflicted arteries.

Doctors from Milwaukee were present during the surgery to observe the procedure and Srivastava said doctors will be coming every week or two from the United States and many other countries to learn about the technique. He said the hospital is considering developing a lab dedicated specifically to simultaneous hybrid revascularization operations.

[This article © MyWestTexas.com 2005. All rights reserved.]