Saloni Heart Center – Excellence in Children’s Heart Healthcare

Overview

In a recovery room lit by sterile tubes and quiet hope, a young girl sits smiling — toy in hand, mother by her side. She just survived a congenital heart surgery. But in India, not every child is so lucky. Over 28,000 infants die annually from this under-reported pandemic, often due to distance, delay, and a broken care pipeline.

This is the gap the Saloni Heart Center (SHC) aims to close — not one child at a time, but thousands.

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The Vision

Set within the SGPGIMS campus in Lucknow, SHC will be India’s largest standalone pediatric cardiac hospital — a purpose-built, 200-bed, 450,000 sq. ft. institution dedicated to one thing: saving children’s lives.

It will house:

• Modular Hybrid OTs
  
• Cath/EP Labs
  
• CV-MRI/CT Imaging Suites
  
• Family-Centered Recovery Zones
  

And beyond infrastructure, it will deliver 1,500+ trained clinicians by 2028, thanks to a global train-the-trainer program — making it a national center of excellence.

Imagine a facility where scenes like this are not miracles, but milestones.

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The Project Owner

The Saloni Heart Foundation (SHF) — the project’s driving force — was founded in California by Milli and Himanshu Seth after the loss of their daughter, Saloni, to a congenital heart defect in 2018.

In her memory, SHF has since:

• Delivered 5,000+ expert second opinions
  
• Funded 70+ lifesaving surgeries
  
• Awarded medical scholarships to underprivileged students
  

Now, it leads this ₹500 crore public-private hospital project in partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh and SGPGIMS, clinically mentored by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Children’s Heart Link.

The Challenges

BuiltX was brought in as the financial planning consultant  with one mission: make the impossible feasible.

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1. Closing the Gap with Blended Capital

The ₹500 crore needed to build SHC wasn’t raised through a single source. It came together through:

• Philanthropic grants
  
• CSR funds
  
• Multilateral healthcare loans
  
• In-kind technology donations

Every rupee was mapped to a tangible outcome: a bed, a surgery, or a training seat.

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2. Turning Complexity into Clarity

With over 400 pages of clinical strategy and a 10-year operating model, BuiltX translated technical data into clear, donor-ready messages like:

• “₹X enables one more pediatric surgery”
  
• “₹Y trains five cardiac intensivists”
  
  

3. Storytelling Amid Donor Fatigue

Post-COVID, many donors had turned elsewhere. BuiltX reframed congenital heart disease not as a niche issue, but a silent pandemic reigniting attention and unlocking new CSR partnerships.

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How we Approached It

Every aspect of this project was designed for transparency, scalability, and trust.

1) Impact-Centric DPR

Each phase was directly tied to outputs: Beds, Surgeries, Training, Equipment

2) Visual-Driven Presentations

We used high-resolution 3D renders and floor plates to show exactly what each rupee builds.

3) International Benchmarking

Clinical and operational KPIs were aligned with:

• UCSF Benioff
  
• Boston Children’s
  
• IQIC Standards

4) Integrated Equipment Phasing

We phased out capital needs by stage to ensure clarity and donor alignment.

5) Execution-Linked Milestones

Each timeline included buffers, resource maps, and feasibility proofs to de-risk the journey.

The Final Word

What’s next isn’t just a building. It’s a belief that no Indian child should die of a treatable condition. The Saloni Heart Center will not just treat disease  it will restore possibility. And we’re building it  one donor, one partner, and one heartbeat at a time.

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