Father and his daughter both saved by the same heart surgeon

Over the past 75 years, thousands of young patients have undergone life-saving procedures.

BBC North West Tonight has also been following the journey of three-year-old Raffy, who was born with a hole in his heart.

His latest operation was also carried out by Dr Dhannapuneni.

“I couldn’t say thank you enough that it’s all gone as well as it can do,” said Phil, 39, following his son’s recent surgery.

“I think the operation was quicker than we expected.

“The outcome seems to have been pretty good. They’ve done an amazing job.”

Dr Dhannapuneni, who is the centre’s head of cardiac surgery, said he was incredibly proud of what had been achieved over more than 75 years.

He has personally carried out 2,500 surgeries on children and 1,000 on adults.

“Liverpool was one of the earliest [centres] in the world to start operating on children, way back in 1950,” he said.

“Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is the second biggest centre in UK and Ireland, performing heart surgeries.

“We are having better outcomes, more children operated with heart surgery [are] surviving now than before.”