Dear ECHO Members,
We know many of the children who Professor Anderson operated on and we know that many of you will be pleased that he is still very much part of the Evelina Team and join us to thank him for his continued support and encouragement to ECHO and to its members, I was at a teenage event with Professor Anderson and remember him saying how wonderful it was to see so many of the babies he had operated on grown up. His passionate speeches at Cardiac meetings about the Evelina families inspired me and his involvement in various campaigns including getting CHD recognized for DLA assessors has proved his dedication to the congenital heart families we work with.
We would love to thank him and are asking ECHO members, parents, siblings and heart patients if you have any thank you letters or cards you would like to send into ECHO we will get them to Professor Anderson, please send them to the ECHO office by the 10th May 2018- we will present them to him once we have put them all together.
Our thanks go to Dr Aaron Bell for communicating this news promptly and for the reassurance you have offered our members.
Samantha Johnson
Chief Executive
ECHO
Dear Echo members
Professor Anderson has announced that after 27 years as a cardiac surgeon here the time has come for him to step back from the operating table and hand over all of his cardiac surgical duties to our other surgeons. Professor Anderson is still very much part of our unit and is not leaving the Evelina, and he will continue to have a role here providing us with his experience, support and wisdom.
I know this may cause some of you some worries, especially if Professor Anderson has done surgery before and more surgery is planned for the future. But please do not worry, we have 3 excellent surgeons (Mr Caner Salih, Mr Conal Austin and Mr Simone Speggiorin) and if the time comes when further surgery is planned for you or your child then please feel free to discuss this with your cardiologist so together you can work out who will be best placed to take on the surgery.
It’s very difficult to put into words just how much Professor Anderson has done for you, the echo community and us here at the Evelina over the years. I know he would say ‘oh it’s just my job’ but we all know it is so much more than that and that he has been instrumental in improving the lives of so many of us, children, parents and staff over his last 27 years. The Evelina is going from strength to strength, and that is in a very large part due to his work and dedication over the years.
If you have any immediate concerns about this then please feel free to phone our Specialist Nursing Team on 0207 188 4546 and they can answer any of your questions. Alternatively please feel free to discuss this with your cardiologist at the next outpatient clinic appointment.
Best wishes
Aaron
Dr Aaron Bell
Consultant Paediatric Cardiology
Head of Service
To all at ECHO,
Time and tide wait for no man including me and so I have decided to step back from the frontline after 27 years as a consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon. As I do I can reflect with pleasure and satisfaction on the progress that the Evelina cardiac service has made from when I started in 1991. Such progress would not have been possible without the support of excellent clinical colleagues but also the support and trust invested in me by so many parents and children over those years. It has been a privilege to have worked alongside you all as partners in a common cause. There are of course those moments of deep sadness when I could not alter the course of the disease process and my thoughts are still with those families.
However I plan to continue being active in as supportive a role as I possibly can lending my experience (of triumph and disaster) and accumulated knowledge to my colleagues and the wider community of congenital cardiac specialists outside the Evelina. I will no longer accept referrals but will continue to offer my help in whatever way my surgical colleagues feel is beneficial including in the operating theatre if so desired.
I believe that the Evelina is now in a very strong position to advance and ascend to the highest level in World paediatric cardiology and surgery and my intention is to do all I can to fulfil that ambition.
My best wishes
David
Professor David Anderson