Doctor Of The Poor

Rupak D Sharma in Bangkok

Around 37 years ago Sanduk Ruit endured one of the greatest sufferings of his life when his younger sister succumbed to tuberculosis. As an emotional adolescent of 16 at that time, he felt the grief more deeply and found himself entrapped in a web of depressing thoughts.

It was not that he blamed himself for her death: he had done all that he could to help her for two years before her demise. It was just that he was so devastated by the loss of someone so close to him, he was not able to find consolation in anything.

This intense feeling of personal loss, however, inspired Ruit to achieve something greater in life which unknowingly kindled a keen interest of “becoming a doctor” in him.

“Prior to the death of my sister, I always thought of becoming a pilot …. Before that I used to look at my father and think of becoming a businessman …. Her demise played a crucial role in moulding my career,” 53-year-old Ruit told Asia News Network.

Born in the laps of Mount Kanchanjunga, the world’s third highest peak, in Olangchungola, northeastern Nepal, Ruit is now a world famous ophthalmologist who is known as “Doctor of the Poor” among the less privileged for introducing cheap suture-less operation technique to perform cataract surgery. He also started mass production of inexpensive high-quality intraocular lenses.

Had Dr Ruit not invented this operation technique and introduced low-priced intraocular lenses, millions of poor cataract patients in Asia and other continents would have either ended up blind or wearing glasses as thick as bottles of Coke, which offered poor vision quality.

For these contributions to the public health sector, he was recently awarded prestigious Prince Mahidol Award of Thailand. He is also the recipient of Ramon Magsaysay award, considered Asia’s Nobel Prize.

A modest and soft spoken but hard-headed Dr Ruit embarked on the mission to bring the cataract surgery within the reach of the poor in 1984 soon after he completed his postgraduate training on ophthalmology.

Even as a fresh postgraduate student he was convinced that the only way to provide relief to poor cataract patients was through implantation of intraocular lens–an operation technique in which the eye’s lenses are replaced by a highly specialised clear plastic substitute.

But there was one obstacle: the high cost of lenses, which stood at around US$100. For a poor person living in rural parts of Nepal, the amount was simply unaffordable.

“One way to overcome this problem was to get financial aids from developed countries or INGOs, which I was getting at that time. But I realised this would not be sustainable,” Dr Ruit, the founder of Nepal’s Tilganga Eye Centre, said.

He then started looking for alternatives to bring down the cost and in this course found out that the cost of the raw material, used in production of the lenses, was not more than 60 US cents. “The manufacturing companies were keeping huge profit margins,” he said.

Then in 1995 he started commercial production of the international standard intraocular lenses in Nepal at a cost 10 times less than that by companies in developed countries. The factory in Nepal now churns out 300,000 units of lenses every year. These lenses, which are exported to around 60 countries, cater to around 10 per cent of the global demand.

Meanwhile, in the process of refining his surgical techniques and making it simpler and cost-effective Dr Ruit and his team also developed a suture-less form of cataract surgery in 1996. Suture-less surgeries are performed by making tiny incisions on the eye through which cataract is removed and a new lens is inserted. The quick surgery, which does not require sutures due to tininess of the slits, costs as little as $20 per patient.

Dr Ruit found a new method of performing the operation but very few Nepali medical professionals supported his work. “I faced severe criticisms from medical professionals of my own country. A group of surgeons even went to meet the prime minister to complain that I was fooling around with the lives of poor people and that my invention was not of international standard,” he said.

Dr Ruit, however, stood strong and gradually medical professionals started endorsing his treatment model. Today, the surgical technique invented by Dr Ruit is a standarised treatment technology which is practiced not only by Nepali doctors but ophthalmologists around the world.

Reminiscing the days of struggle he said: “When you are right no one can prove you wrong …. I took proving myself right as a challenge and I succeeded.Published in Asia News

Reunion 2008

BY RUPAK D SHARMA

BANGKOK, JAN 29

 

To many, Bangkok’s luxurious Landmark Hotel is another tall concrete structure that caters to high-end foreigners who fly into Thailand for vacation or business purposes.

 

But on Monday (i.e. Jan 28), it became a venue for many Nepalis residing temporarily or permanently in the ‘Land of Smiles’ to run into people of their own country or origin.

 

Organized by Non-Resident Nepalis Association of Thailand, with the objective of honoring Dr Sanduk Ruit, a world renowned ophthalmologist, winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award and recipient of Thailand’s prestigious Prince Mahidol Award 2007, and welcoming newly-appointed Nepali Ambassador to Thailand, Naveen Prakash Jung Shah, the occasion was supposed to be formal.

 

But as expected, the event gradually transformed into a grand reunion party, with long lost friends exchanging greetings, engaging in chit-chats in their native language and digging into the all-time favorite momos prepared by one of Landmark’s Nepali chefs.

 

The entire scene was like a carnival, with men fetching glasses of wine and laughing, most women gossiping and children engaging in balloon-made sword fight in a small room next to the dining hall.

 

The event was the biggest the NRN Thailand Chapter had organized so far this year. “The turnout is enthusiastic,” Ramesh Hamal, president of NRN Thailand Chapter and chief operations officer of Green Heritage Group said.

 

As could be seen, around 250 Nepalis—although small in number compared to an estimated 100,000 Nepalis or people of Nepali origin living in Thailand—had poured into the hall on the seventh floor of the hotel. And this included most of the who’s who of Nepalis working in Thailand.

 

From Sanjeev Subba, executive director of Webster University in Thailand and Ramesh Shrestha, managing director of PCP Asia to Meena Pandey from UN Women’s Club of Thailand and Dinesh Sah, a senior officer at Siemens, all were there.

 

Several businessmen who have successfully established themselves in Thailand were also spotted. And there were students from Asian Institute of Technology, officials of the embassy and Nepal Airlines Corporation, and others who had come to Bangkok from as far as the northern city of Chiang Mai, southern island of Phuket and southern city of Hua Hin just to attend the function.

 

All of them were either mixing around introducing themselves, watching the cultural dance show or standing in the queue to taste the food the party was offering.

 

The cheerful atmosphere, however, turned serious for a brief moment when Dr Ruit, who was making a presentation on cataract surgery in Nepal and world-renowned Nepal-made eye lenses, suddenly shifted gear into politics, urging NRNs to “teach our leaders how to run the country”.

 

“Our voice does not count because we live in Nepal but Nepalis living abroad can exert pressure on the government …. I’ve been in the field and seen Nepalis (of all walks of life). People of Nepal are very nice people, nicer than those living in neighboring countries. It is the government which is ruining the country,” he said.

 

But, like in Nepal, this party in Thailand did not end discussing and dissecting the layers of politics. (Published in The Kathmandu Post)