Pervaiz Chaudhry

Biography

Life has a lot of plot twists and turns. If you had asked me as a teenager if I was going to become a heart surgeon, I would have laughed. That was my father's dream for me, not mine. We lost our father in a car accident, and it was in that moment that I knew I needed to go to medical school, it was my job to fulfill my father's dream. Education is a priority in my family, and I needed to lead from the front, as the head of my family. I had no idea that my father could see the gifts that I had been given, he had such wisdom. I entered medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit, not knowing what sort of medicine I wanted to practice. I did rotations in every discipline and it was when I did my general surgery rotation that I knew I had found my place. I was accepted at my first choice for my Residency at Henry Ford Hospital. During my surgical residency, I rotated through all types of surgery. On that first day of my Cardiothoracic, instantly, I knew this was it. I loved the patients most of all. I could make a difference in their lives, and they were so grateful. Not only was I driven to be a heart surgeon, but I was going to be an innovator, I was going to spend 2 years doing research on heart failure, and then do my Fellowship in Cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA (arguably the best Heart program in the US). I was in love with California. I did an extra year of Fellowship to master transplant, mechanical devices and pediatric procedures, and then came to Fresno to gain more experience in all types of heart surgery. My plan was to stay one year, that was in 2005. Over the last 11 years, I have committed myself and my family to Central California. I knew that heart failure was on the rise and that I had to find ways to make people better, faster. My specialty is advanced minimally invasive heart surgery and I am the only heart surgeon doing 19 complex, surgeries WITHOUT opening a patient's chest by pioneering new advanced techniques.  

Research Interest

Medical Science