Paediatric Cardiology
Establishment of the cardiology unit at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) in 1999 with the appointment of Dr. S. Narenthiran as the consultant Cardiologist was a major breakthrough in the development of care for children with heart diseases in Sri Lanka. A giant leap forward was the commissioning of the cardiac catheterisation laboratory in December 2005 which paved the way to diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterisations of children.
Annually we perform around 1000 cardiac catheterisations and around one third of them are interventional procedures where we provide a therapeutic solution to the patient. As a tertiary care centre which provide treatment to congenital heart disease, our patients range from newborns to adults. The unit holds the credit for introduction of many catheter interventional procedures for the first time in Sri Lanka.
By 2012, it was felt that a proper expansion plan was needed for the development of services to treat all children with heart disease in Sri Lanka. The goal was to treat 3000 children every year, which was the estimated figure based on the number of live births in the country. To achieve this, a detailed development plan was laid down which included 3 phases of infrastructure development. The first phase was the completed in 2015 with a Rs. 50 million donation made by Mr. Mohamedally Jafferjee. For more info on Little Hearts Project.
In addition, the first ever human heart valve and tissue bank was established through a donation made by the Rotary International through Rotary Club of Colombo Fort.
Dr. Duminda Samarasinghe (MBBS, DCH, MD, FACC)
Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr. Shehan Perera (MBBS, DCH, MD)
Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr. Dimuthu Weerasuriya (MBBS, DCH, MD)
Resident Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
As a solution to the long standing cardiac surgical issues in children, the cardiothoracic unit, two cardiac operating theatres and a 6 bedded cardiac ICU were declared open in January 2007. As a 6 bedded ICU was not enough to handle the output from 2 operating theatres, a 12 bedded HDU was built and opened in 2010.
| Name of Consultant | Specialty | Ward | Clinic Room |
Day of the week | IRV | Remarks |
| Dr.Duminda Samarasinghe | Consultant Cardiologist | Ward 15 | Echo Room (Room 62) | Monday(Ref) 8am – 12noon Every other Wednesday(Ref) 8am-12.00n00n Friday 8.00am- 12.00 noon
|
IRV – Please whatsapp the photo of the referral to 0703316163 the date and the time will be sent as a text |
Only red numbers Call on weekdays 2pm – 4pm |
| Dr.Shehan Perera | Consultant Cardiologist | Ward 15 | Echo Room (Room 62) | Tuesday 8am – 4.00pm Every other Wednesday(Ref) 8am-12.00n00n Thursday(Ref) 8.00am-4.00pm Saturday 8.00am-12.00n00n |
IRV – Please whatsapp the photo… of the referral to 0703316163 the date and the time will be sent as a text |
Only red numbers Call on weekdays 2pm – 4pm |
The cardiology ward is a 24 bedded ward on the 2nd floor of the Cardiology building. The ward provides in-ward care for patients awaiting catheter interventions or surgery in addition to those who need medical management of their cardiac condition. The cardiac catheterisation laboratory is in the cardiac theatre complex.
Located on the 1st floor of the Cardiology building, room no 65 is where we conduct the cardiology clinic. Annually we see around 10,000 new patients and 15,000 revisits at our clinic. To streamline the process, different categories of patients are allocated to different days of the week.
Monday and Thursday – for patients directly referred by the consultants in other hospitals
Tuesday and Friday – For revisit patients and those who come for the first time with a referral letter
Wednesday – for patients who need detailed evaluation
Saturday – for evaluation of patients after cardiac catheter interventions
The cardiology unit at the Lady Ridgeway hospital is the only tertiary care referral center for children with heart disease in Sri Lanka. It provides diagnostic facilities at the outpatient clinic, in-patient care for those who need in-ward treatment and also facilitates diagnostic and interventional catheterisations through the cardiac catheterisation laboratory.
How to reach us…
All patients should have a proper referral letter to be registered as a new patient. You should take a photograph of the referral letter and send it via WhatsApp to our mobile no 0703316163 and depending on the urgency, we will send you a date and time to bring your child for evaluation. Please write the following details clearly on the referral letter before taking the photograph.
Name of the patient
Date of Birth
Contact No
Residential Address
All review patients should call 0703316163 and get an appointment for review before coming to the hospital.
Little Hearts Project
The first step in providing a better service is establishment of the infrastructure. To fulfil this need, the Little Heart project was initiated thanks to the untiring effort of few concerned citizens and the contribution made by the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians, Creative Software Pvt. Ltd, Storybook and Manusath Derana.
Little Hearts is a national fund-raising project to construct a cardiac and critical care complex at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. It will provide around 70 intensive care beds (Medical, Cardiac and Neonatal ICUs) and four cardiac operating theatres to meet the demand for cardiac surgery in Sri Lanka. In addition, it will have a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, a bone marrow transplant unit, and a state of the art training centre for staff training.
The construction of the unit was handed over to the Civil Engineering division of the Sri Lanka Navy and the construction is done under the supervision of the Ceylon Engineering Consultancy Bureau (CECB). The plan is to complete construction in 2021 and hand over the building to the hospital for operation.
Up to now the project has raised over Rs. 600 million through public donations and the government has contributed over Rs. 300 million. Total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs. 2 billion. All public donations will be utilised for construction of this building. You can get further details at www.littlehearts.lk. You can direct your donations to the Little Hearts account No 79738633 at Bank of Ceylon, Borella (Super-grade) branch.
Additional information visit Little Hearts (www.littlehearts.lk)
In addition it is the training centre recognized by the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine for training of paediatric cardiologists in Sri Lanka.