Jose Chacko Periappuram Biography 
Jose Chacko Periappuram is an Indian physician and cardiac surgeon from the state of Kerala. He is credit to the first heart transplant Kerala, and also the first successful heart retransplant in the country. This leading cardiac surgeon of the country has been honoured with Padma Shri by government of India in 2011 for his contributions towards science and medicine.
He is also the first heart surgeon to commence a beating heart surgical program in Kerala. Similarly he has done many heart surgeries of different complications for the first time in Kerala such as First successful TAR, First Awake Bypass Surgery in Kerala and many more. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of London. As of now he has completed over 25,000 cardiac surgeries of which 10,000 were done independently. Fr. Abel, the founder chairman of Kalabhavan is his paternal uncle.
Jose Chacko Periappuram was born on 28 April 1958 in South Paravur, Ernakulam, Kerala. P. M. Chacko and Mary Chacko are his parents. His father is a leading botanist from Kerala. Jose schooled from St. Ephraim's High School, Mannanam, followed by bachelor in science from St. Thomas College, Palai, where he studied botany. He completed his MBBS from Govt. Medical College, Kottayam in 1985 and for advanced studies moved to UK, after spending a year at Kottayam Medical College itself. He studied at different medical institutes, taking advanced studies in heart surgeries and returned to India.
He first joined Medical Trust Hospital, Kochi. He conducted the first heart transplant in the state of Kerala at this hospital in the year 2003. It was done on a 34-year old patient named K. A. Abraham who received a donor, a person who died in a road accident. It was only the third heart transplant in India. He performed the second heart transplant the next year, and till now has successfully completed 11. On 6 March 2014, Jose made a record as the first cardiac surgeon to conduct a successful heart re-transplant in the country. It was done on his fourth transplant patient.
Published: February 15, 2019
Updated: February 15, 2019
