Here is an inspiring story of a doctor who has endeavoured to help and provide in his own modest way for the sightless elders who are afflicted by cataract.
This humble doctor has restored eyesight to more than 100,000 people, perhaps more than any doctor in history. His patients from far flung villages stagger and grope their way along mountain trails with great hope and confidence just hoping to go under his scalpel. A day after he operates the patients to remove cataracts, he simply pulls off the bandages and, lo! They can see clearly. At first tentatively, then jubilantly, they gaze about. A few hours later, they walk home, radiating in wonder and ineffable bliss. Dr. Sanduk Ruit, a Nepali ophthalmologist has pioneered a simple cataract microsurgery technique that costs only $25 per patient and is virtually always successful. Indeed, his ?Nepal method? is now taught in United States medical schools. In the United States, cataract surgery is typically performed with complex machines. But these are unaffordable in poor countries, so Dr. Ruit [pioneered a] small-incision microsurgery to remove cataracts without sutures. At first, skeptics denounced or mocked his innovations. But then the American Journal of Ophthalmology published a study of a randomized trial finding that Dr. Ruit?s technique had exactly the same outcome (98 percent success at a six-month follow-up) as the Western machines. One difference was that Dr. Ruit?s method was much faster and cheaper. He founded the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which ... conducts eye surgery on 30,000 patients annually, [as well as] manufactures 450,000 tiny lenses a year for use in cataract surgery, keeping costs to $3 a lens compared to $200 in the West.
" />Here is an inspiring story of a doctor who has endeavoured to help and provide in his own modest way for the sightless elders who are afflicted by cataract.
This humble doctor has restored eyesight to more than 100,000 people, perhaps more than any doctor in history. His patients from far flung villages stagger and grope their way along mountain trails with great hope and confidence just hoping to go under his scalpel. A day after he operates the patients to remove cataracts, he simply pulls off the bandages and, lo! They can see clearly. At first tentatively, then jubilantly, they gaze about. A few hours later, they walk home, radiating in wonder and ineffable bliss. Dr. Sanduk Ruit, a Nepali ophthalmologist has pioneered a simple cataract microsurgery technique that costs only $25 per patient and is virtually always successful. Indeed, his ?Nepal method? is now taught in United States medical schools. In the United States, cataract surgery is typically performed with complex machines. But these are unaffordable in poor countries, so Dr. Ruit [pioneered a] small-incision microsurgery to remove cataracts without sutures. At first, skeptics denounced or mocked his innovations. But then the American Journal of Ophthalmology published a study of a randomized trial finding that Dr. Ruit?s technique had exactly the same outcome (98 percent success at a six-month follow-up) as the Western machines. One difference was that Dr. Ruit?s method was much faster and cheaper. He founded the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which ... conducts eye surgery on 30,000 patients annually, [as well as] manufactures 450,000 tiny lenses a year for use in cataract surgery, keeping costs to $3 a lens compared to $200 in the West.
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