Ask everything. Before the surgery date is the only time every question has a calm, considered answer. What defect is being repaired and why now. What the procedure involves step by step. What the ICU will look like when you first see your child after. What the recovery timeline is. What the risks are for this specific child, not the average child in a textbook. Write them down. Bring the list.

“I tell every family the same thing at the pre-surgical appointment. If you leave this room with an unanswered question that’s on me not on you. Ask it again, ask it differently, ask it as many times as you need until the answer actually makes sense to you,” says Dr. Prashant Bobhate, Pediatric Cardiologist in Mumbai, India.

The clinical questions are the ones most families forget to ask because the emotional weight of the appointment crowds them out and then they remember them at two in the morning three days later.

• Why now: Ask specifically why surgery is recommended at this point rather than earlier or later because the timing of paediatric cardiac surgery is a deliberate clinical decision based on pressure measurements, growth trajectory and ventricular function and you deserve to understand the reasoning not just accept the date.
• What exactly happens: Ask the surgeon to walk through the procedure in plain language, what the chest opening involves, how bypass works, how long the heart will be stopped and what the team does during that time because parents who understand the steps are far less consumed by catastrophic imagination in the waiting room.
• What are the real risks: Ask for the specific risks for your child’s defect and age not a generic list off a consent form because a VSD closure in a healthy eight month old carries different risk than the same procedure in a child with rising pulmonary pressures or a concurrent infection and you need to understand which conversation you’re actually in.
• What does success look like: Ask what a good outcome means for this specific defect because for some repairs success means complete correction and a normal life and for others it means significant improvement with ongoing monitoring and that distinction matters enormously for how a family orients their expectations going forward.

Getting a full picture of what paediatric cardiac intervention involves and what specialist-level care looks like before making any surgical decision is exactly what a thorough congenital heart disease consultation provides before any admission date is set.

Equally important. Most families forget these entirely.

• ICU timeline: Ask how long your child is expected to be in cardiac ICU, what they’ll look like when you first see them after surgery and which tubes, lines and monitors to expect because the first post-operative ICU visit is significantly less frightening when you’ve been told in advance what you’ll see walking through that door.
• Pain management: Ask specifically how pain is managed in the post-operative period because a child in uncontrolled pain after cardiac surgery recovers more slowly and parents who advocate clearly for adequate analgesia get better outcomes than those who assume the team will manage it without being asked.
• Discharge criteria: Ask what the team needs to see before your child goes home because families who know the specific milestones, feeding tolerance, oxygen levels, wound healing, understand why discharge is or isn’t happening rather than feeling helpless in a waiting pattern with no visible end.
• Follow-up schedule: Ask exactly when the first post-operative echo is, what it’s looking for, who does it and what would prompt an earlier return because going home after open heart surgery without a clear follow-up plan in hand is something no family should accept at discharge regardless of how busy the ward is.

Parents wanting to understand what the warning signs of cardiac deterioration look like in children in the weeks after any major cardiac procedure should read this piece on top 5 warning signs of pediatric heart failure because knowing what to watch for at home is as important as knowing what happened in the operating theatre.

A family walking into a pre-surgical appointment deserves a cardiologist who has time for every question including the ones they’re embarrassed to ask and the ones they don’t yet know they need to ask. Not a fifteen minute slot before the next patient. A real conversation that leaves nobody confused about what’s coming. Dr. Prashant Bobhate has spent over 12 years preparing families for paediatric cardiac surgery across every defect complexity and every level of prior medical knowledge at the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Escorts Heart Institute New Delhi. Fellowship at University of Alberta Canada. Over 400 children on active cardiac therapies right now. He doesn’t move on until the family understands. That’s not a service promise. It’s just how the appointments run.

📞 Call Now: (+91) 8080 826 898 A proper pre-surgical consultation answers every question about the procedure, the recovery and what comes after so your family walks into that surgery date knowing exactly what to expect at every stage.

• Congenital Heart Defects, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine — https://medlineplus.gov/congenitalheartdefects.html
• Congenital Heart Defects, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute — https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/congenital-heart-defects

Preparation starts weeks before the surgery date not the night before. The surgical team needs blood work, echo, anaesthesia assessment and medication adjustments done in advance. Parents need to understand what the pre-op protocol requires, what to expect on admission day and what the ICU looks like after the operation so the first time they see any of it isn’t also the most frightening day of their child’s life.

“The families who come in most prepared are almost always the ones who asked every question at the pre-surgical appointment rather than waiting until they were standing outside the OT. There are no foolish questions before open heart surgery on a child. None,” says Dr. Prashant Bobhate, Pediatric Cardiologist in Mumbai, India.

It’s more structured than most parents expect and every step has a reason behind it that the team should be explaining clearly rather than handing over a checklist without context.

• Pre-op investigations: Blood counts, coagulation profile, kidney and liver function, chest X-ray and a final echo confirming the surgical anatomy are all completed before admission and any abnormal finding at this stage changes the surgical timing or approach so nothing gets skipped.
• Medication adjustments: Some cardiac medications need to be continued right up to the morning of surgery while others including certain diuretics and anticoagulants need to be stopped days before and getting this wrong at home is one of the most common avoidable pre-surgical complications families face.
• Fasting instructions: Specific fasting windows for solids and liquids vary by the child’s age and the anaesthetic protocol and following them exactly matters because a full stomach on the morning of cardiac surgery under general anaesthesia creates a real risk that strict fasting eliminates entirely.
• Infection check: Any active respiratory infection, fever, skin infection or dental procedure in the weeks before scheduled cardiac surgery is grounds for postponement because operating on an infected child under bypass carries risks that simply aren’t worth taking when postponing two weeks eliminates them.

Understanding what the recovery period looks like after a paediatric cardiac procedure and what warning signs to watch for is exactly what a thorough pediatric heart failure management consultation covers before any surgical admission is confirmed.

Honestly. Without pretending it’s nothing.

• Age-appropriate honesty: A four year old and a twelve year old need different conversations but both need something true and a child who is told nothing and then wakes up in a cardiac ICU with tubes and monitors everywhere is dealing with shock on top of surgery which is genuinely harder to recover from than one who knew roughly what to expect.
• Hospital visit beforehand: Some centres allow families to see the ICU and recovery area before admission day and for older children especially this single visit removes more anxiety than any amount of reassurance at home because the imagined version of an ICU is almost always worse than the actual one.
• Siblings and family: Other children in the family need age-appropriate information too because a sibling who is told nothing and then sees a parent disappear to a hospital for days while the house goes quiet experiences a kind of fear that honest simple words beforehand would have reduced significantly.
• Your own anxiety: Children read their parents more accurately than most parents realise and a parent who is visibly terrified on admission morning makes a frightened child more frightened regardless of what words are being said so getting your own questions fully answered at the pre-surgical appointment isn’t just for you it’s directly for them.

Parents who want to understand what cardiac warning signs look like in children before any surgical admission becomes the conversation should read this piece on how to spot the early signs of heart disease in neonates because the earlier the right team is involved the more time there is to prepare properly rather than rushing.

Open heart surgery on a child is not a day. It’s a process that starts at the first cardiology appointment and doesn’t end at discharge and families need a team that treats it that way rather than handing them a surgery date and a pre-op checklist and calling that preparation. Dr. Prashant Bobhate has spent over 12 years walking families through the full arc of paediatric cardiac care from initial diagnosis through surgical planning through post-operative recovery and long term follow up at the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Escorts Heart Institute New Delhi. Fellowship at University of Alberta Canada. Over 400 children on active cardiac therapies right now. He makes sure families know exactly what’s happening and why at every single step.

📞 Call Now: (+91) 8080 826 898 A proper pre-surgical assessment tells you exactly what your child needs before the operation, what to expect during recovery and what the follow-up plan looks like so nothing about the process comes as a surprise.

• Congenital Heart Defects, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine — https://medlineplus.gov/congenitalheartdefects.html
• Congenital Heart Defects, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute — https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/congenital-heart-defects

Yes. Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY covers several congenital heart surgeries including VSD closure, ASD repair, TOF correction and PDA ligation under its cardiac surgery packages and eligible families pay nothing out of pocket at empanelled hospitals. Private health insurance also covers congenital heart surgery in most cases but waiting periods, sub-limits and what counts as a covered procedure vary significantly between policies and need to be verified before admission not after.

“Families who qualify for Ayushman Bharat often don’t know their child’s surgery is covered until someone tells them specifically and that gap between entitlement and awareness is something I try to close at the very first appointment because it changes everything about what’s actually accessible to them,” says Dr. Prashant Bobhate, Pediatric Cardiologist in Mumbai, India.

More than most families expect but with specific limits that matter enormously when the actual procedure is being planned and the hospital is being chosen.

• Covered procedures: VSD repair, ASD closure, TOF correction, PDA ligation, pulmonary valvotomy and several other congenital cardiac surgeries fall within the PM-JAY package list and eligible children can access these at empanelled hospitals with zero out-of-pocket cost for the procedure itself.
• Package limits: Each procedure has a fixed government package rate and when the actual cost of surgery at a private empanelled hospital exceeds that package ceiling the difference either gets absorbed by the hospital or falls on the family and understanding that gap before choosing a centre matters.
• Empanelled hospitals only: Ayushman Bharat coverage only applies at hospitals officially empanelled under PM-JAY and not every cardiac centre in Mumbai that performs paediatric heart surgery is on that list so eligibility at a specific hospital needs to be confirmed before any admission happens.
• Eligibility verification: The PM-JAY benefit is income and ration-card linked and families need to verify their eligibility through the official Ayushman Bharat portal or helpline before assuming coverage applies because assumptions at the hospital admission desk on surgery day create problems nobody needs at that moment.

Understanding what specialist paediatric cardiac care looks like at a dedicated centre and how to access it through available schemes is explored in this piece on the pediatric heart specialist at Kokilaben Hospital because knowing where the right care sits is the first step before the coverage question even becomes relevant.

Complicated. Read the policy before the surgery not after.

• Congenital condition clauses: Many older health insurance policies exclude congenital conditions entirely or impose a waiting period of two to four years before congenital heart surgery is covered and a family that discovers this on admission day faces a situation that proper policy review weeks earlier would have avoided.
• Sum insured adequacy: A policy with a Rs 3 lakh sum insured covers a simple VSD closure at a government hospital but falls significantly short of a complex TOF repair at a private tertiary centre and families need to check whether their cover actually matches the procedure their child needs at the centre their cardiologist recommends.
• Implant and device costs: Some insurers reimburse surgical fees but cap or exclude the cost of prosthetic valves, occluder devices and other implantable materials that form a significant portion of the total bill and those exclusions need to be identified in the policy document before the treatment plan is finalised.
• Cashless vs reimbursement: Cashless admission requires the hospital to be on the insurer’s network and if the best centre for the child’s specific defect isn’t on that network the family may need to pay upfront and claim reimbursement later which requires financial capacity many families in this situation don’t have.

Parents wanting to understand what the cost picture looks like for open heart surgery in Mumbai across hospital tiers and what drives the final number should read this piece on top 5 warning signs of pediatric heart failure because catching a deteriorating defect before it becomes an emergency admission is always what keeps the most affordable and appropriate options available.

A family navigating a congenital heart diagnosis while simultaneously trying to understand PM-JAY eligibility, insurance pre-authorisation and hospital empanelment needs a team that can help them work through all of it not just the clinical side. Dr. Prashant Bobhate has spent over 12 years working with families across every socioeconomic background at the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and understands what it takes to make the right cardiac care accessible not just available in theory. Escorts Heart Institute New Delhi. Fellowship at University of Alberta Canada. Over 400 children on active cardiac therapies right now. He doesn’t send families away to figure out the system alone. He tells them exactly what their child needs and helps them find the clearest path to getting it.

📞 Call Now: (+91) 8080 826 898 A proper assessment tells you what procedure your child needs, whether Ayushman Bharat or your insurance covers it and what the realistic out-of-pocket picture looks like before any decision gets made.

• Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, National Health Authority — https://pmjay.gov.in/
• Congenital Heart Defects, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine — https://medlineplus.gov/congenitalheartdefects.html

In Mumbai’s private tertiary hospitals, children’s open heart surgery costs roughly between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 10 lakh depending on the defect, the complexity of the repair and the hospital tier. Simple VSD or ASD repairs sit at the lower end. Complex congenital corrections like TOF repair, arterial switch or Fontan procedures push significantly higher. The defect and the centre determine the number far more than any published price list does.

“Families call asking for a cost before they’ve even had an echo and I understand why. But giving a number before knowing the defect, the anatomy and what the repair actually involves would be like quoting a construction price before seeing the building,” says Dr. Prashant Bobhate, Pediatric Cardiologist in Mumbai, India.

Not one figure covers every child. The cost shifts significantly based on variables that are specific to each case and each centre and understanding them stops families from being blindsided when the actual estimate arrives.

• Defect complexity: A straightforward VSD closure on bypass costs far less than a tetralogy of Fallot repair, a complete AVSD correction or an arterial switch operation for transposition and the surgical time, bypass duration and post-operative ICU requirement all scale with complexity.
• ICU duration: This is usually the biggest variable families underestimate because a child who spends two days in cardiac ICU and one who spends ten days in the same unit after the same procedure can have final bills that differ by Rs 2 to 3 lakh from that single line item alone.
• Hospital tier: A charitable or government-aided cardiac centre in Mumbai charges significantly less than a premium private hospital for an equivalent procedure and the gap can be Rs 2 to 4 lakh on the same surgery without necessarily reflecting a difference in surgical outcome for standard defects.
• Implants and devices: Some repairs require prosthetic valves, conduits, pericardial patches or other implantable materials that are billed separately from the surgical fee and these costs vary by brand, size and whether Indian or imported equivalents are used.

Understanding what open heart surgery involves for a child’s specific defect and what the recovery looks like is exactly what a thorough pediatric heart failure management consultation maps out before any surgical planning begins.

More than most families expect upfront.

• Pre-surgical workup: Echo, ECG, chest X-ray, blood work, cardiac catheterisation for pressure measurements and anaesthesia assessment all happen before the operation and these carry their own charges that rarely appear in the initial surgery quote families receive.
• Anaesthesia fees: Paediatric cardiac anaesthesia is a subspecialty in itself and the anaesthesiologist’s fee in a private Mumbai hospital is billed separately from the surgical fee and can add Rs 30,000 to Rs 80,000 depending on procedure length and complexity.
• Post-operative medications: Diuretics, anticoagulants, cardiac medications and antibiotics through the recovery period add up across the hospital stay and the first weeks at home and these ongoing medication costs continue well beyond the discharge date.
• Follow-up echos and outpatient visits: Open heart surgery in a child doesn’t end at discharge because echo surveillance at one month, three months, six months and annually thereafter carries its own cost across years and this long tail of follow-up is something families need to budget for from the start not discover later.

Parents wanting to understand what the warning signs of an unrepaired cardiac defect look like before surgery becomes urgent should read this piece on top 5 warning signs of pediatric heart failure because recognising deterioration early is what keeps the surgical window open and the options on the table.

Surgical cost planning for a child’s heart condition needs someone who can tell a family exactly what procedure the anatomy requires, what that realistically costs at a centre that does it well and what the follow-up looks like across the years after the operation. Not a quote pulled from a brochure. A real conversation based on the actual echo in front of them. Dr. Prashant Bobhate has spent over 12 years working at the intersection of interventional cardiology and surgical co-management across congenital defects of every complexity at the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Escorts Heart Institute New Delhi. Fellowship at University of Alberta Canada. Over 400 children on active cardiac therapies right now. He tells families what the heart needs, what it costs and what happens next without dressing any of it up.

📞 Call Now: (+91) 8080 826 898 A proper assessment tells you exactly what surgery your child needs, what it realistically costs at a centre equipped to do it well and what the recovery and follow-up plan looks like from day one.

• Congenital Heart Defects, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine — https://medlineplus.gov/congenitalheartdefects.html
• Congenital Heart Defects, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute — https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/congenital-heart-defects

Device closure in India in 2026 costs roughly between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh depending on the hospital, the device used and the city. Open heart surgical repair runs higher, typically between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh or more at private tertiary centres. But the more important number isn’t the cost. It’s whether the anatomy supports device closure at all because that single question changes the entire cost picture.

“Families often come in having already looked up prices online and the number they find rarely matches what their child’s specific situation actually costs because the defect size, the device choice and whether surgery is even avoidable are all variables that a price list can’t account for” says Dr. Prashant Bobhate, Pediatric Cardiologist in Mumbai, India.

Not one number fits every child. The cost of ASD closure depends on several variables that shift significantly from one case to the next and understanding them is what stops families from being surprised when the estimate arrives.

• Device vs surgery: Catheter-based device closure is almost always cheaper than open heart surgery because it avoids the operating theatre, cardiopulmonary bypass, ICU admission and the extended hospital stay that surgical repair requires.
• Device cost itself: The occluder device used in catheter closure is the single largest cost driver in a transcatheter procedure and the price varies depending on brand, size and whether a domestic or imported device is used for that specific defect anatomy.
• Hospital tier: A government or trust hospital will quote significantly less than a premium private tertiary centre for the same procedure and the gap between the two can be substantial without necessarily reflecting a difference in surgical outcome for straightforward cases.
• Defect complexity: A simple mid-septal secundum ASD with good rims costs less to close than a defect with multiple fenestrations, a deficient rim needing a larger device or an anatomy that requires intraoperative TOE guidance throughout a technically demanding catheterisation.

Every child being assessed for ASD closure deserves a detailed structural workup and atrial septal defect evaluation maps the anatomy properly before any cost estimate means anything at all.

The procedure cost is only part of the picture.

• Pre-procedure workup: Echo, ECG, chest X-ray, blood investigations and in some cases a cardiac MRI or catheterisation for pressure assessment all add to the total before the closure itself happens and families need to factor these in from the start.
• Anaesthesia and OT charges: These are billed separately in most private hospitals and can add Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 on top of the procedure estimate depending on the complexity and duration of the catheterisation or surgical session.
• ICU and ward stay: Device closure typically means one to two nights in hospital while surgical repair means a minimum of five to seven days and the daily room and ICU charges in a private tertiary centre accumulate faster than most families expect when they first see the procedure quote.
• Follow-up echos: A device closure requires echo at one month, three months and six months post procedure to confirm device position and residual shunting and these follow-up visits carry their own charges that are rarely included in the initial procedure estimate families receive.

Parents wanting to understand what happens when an ASD goes unrepaired for too long and the pressure consequences that follow should read this piece on when lung transplant becomes necessary for pulmonary hypertension because the cost of delayed correction is always higher than the cost of timely intervention.

Cost transparency matters but so does getting the right procedure recommendation in the first place because a family that pushes for device closure on an anatomy that needs surgery doesn’t save money they create a more complicated and expensive situation down the line. Dr. Prashant Bobhate has spent over 12 years performing catheter-based ASD closures and managing surgical referral pathways for defects where device closure isn’t the right answer at the Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.

• Atrial Septal Defect, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine — https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000097.htm
• Congenital Heart Defects, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute — https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/congenital-heart-defects