Pioneering eye doctor brings sight to hundreds in Nepal

Just next to the Mayadevi temple where Buddha was born more than 2,600 years ago, hundreds of people lined up outside a makeshift hospital on a recent hazy day, hoping their fading eyesight could be restored.

A day later, these saffron-robed Buddhist monks, old farmers and housewives were able to see the world again because the nation’s renowned eye surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit was there with his innovative and inexpensive cataract surgery that has earned him many awards.

At the visitor center turned into eye temporary hospital in Lumbini, 180 miles southwest of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, the assembly line surgery made it possible for about 400 patients to get Ruit’s surgery in just three days.

“The whole objective, aim and my passion and love is to see there remain no people with unnecessary blindness in this part of the world,” Ruit said. “It is important that the people do receive equitable service and not that ‘haves’ receive and ‘have nots’ don’t receive it.”

Many people in Nepal have benefited from Ruit’s work. He he founded the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu and regularly visits remote villages high in the mountains and lowlands of the Himalayan nation, taking with him a team of experts and equipment bringing surgery to their villages.

Ruit has already performed some 130,000 cataract surgeries and is now aiming to expand his work, taking it to as many countries as possible through a foundation he has formed with a British philanthropist Tej Kohli that targets 500,000 surgeries in the next five years.

Ruit began his work in 1984 when the surgery was done by removing the entire cloudy cataract and giving thick glasses. He pioneered a simple technique where he removes the cataract without stitches through small incisions and replaces them with a low-cost artificial lens. Ruit’s average surgery costs about $100. The surgery is free for those who can’t afford it. Patients rarely have to spend the night at the hospital.

One patient, Bhola Chai, a 58-year-old office worker, had to retire because of his fading vision. He was thrilled he could finally see again.

“This surgery has changed my life,” Chai said.

AP At a temporary eye hospital in Lumbini, about 180 miles southwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Dr. Sanduk Ruit performed about 400 eye surgeries in three days last month. “The whole objective, aim and my passion and love is to see there remain no people with unnecessary blindness in this part of the world,” Ruit said.