bengaluru he is a priest but his work extends beyond the portals of the church a santa claus of sorts for kids rou nd the year his heart beats for those suffering from congenital cardiac ailments he does all he can to make sure the child recovers and leads a normal life no wonder fr chinnappan p is as wellversed in medical terms as he is with the bible the father who hails from tamil nadu and lives in bhopal has raised funds and helped over 468 children suffering from congenital heart problems undergo free surgeries all of which have been performed in fortis hospital bengaluru fundraising however wasnt easy from 2004 to 2007 we could do only 15 surgeries funding picked up later post2007 munichbased enr social projects started helping me i conduct camps where children suffering from cardiac ailments by birth are diagnosed i assemble patients with their parents at bhopal and bring them to bengaluru i make five such trips a year says fr chinnappan seeing children get back to health is my happiest moment during every trip i leave the hospital with the last patient in our group he adds the 468 children that fr chinnappan has helped till date were in the age group 018 years from rajasthan orissa west bengal uttar pradesh and karnataka among others congenital heart disease is very common in india one in every 100 kids has this problem its necessary to take care and get them treated he says some of the children saved by fr chinnappan are now married and have kids too monu kumar 12 from kota rajasthan was born with congenital heart ailment the boy got a new lease of life in bengaluru after he was picked up by fr chinnappa we couldnt get our son treated because of our financial condition then we happened to attend a camp by fr chinnappa who brought us to fortis thanks to him my son is alive today says shyam lal monu kumars father according to dr joseph xavier consultant cardiac surgeon at fortis monus case was very complicated and risky the child had multiple problems like aneurysm of heart unusual bulge in the heart valve hole in the heart high lung pressure and right heart failure apart from congenital heart defects surgery was necessary for the child to lead a healthy life explains dr joseph who believes fr chinnappans efforts went a great way in saving the boy