An Eye Surgeon with a Global Vision

Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy may be the only person in the world who has been invited to lecture at leading university schools of medicine, business, and divinity. His life work is to eradicate needless blindness. He has made tremendous progress toward this goal by creating eye hospitals in India that combine modern technology, the latest management practices and compassionate care.

Three-quarters of all blindness is preventable or curable. In India, 12 million people are blind. Becoming blind in India is a grave situation and often has dire consequences for entire families. In 1976, at the mandatory retirement age of 58, Venkataswamy (fondly known as Dr. V) left his chairmanship in ophthalmology, but he was not ready to slow down. Together with family members, he opened the first Aravind Eye Hospital with eleven beds and two operating rooms. Today, the Aravind Eye Care System is the largest single provider of eye surgery in the world, with five hospitals plus mobile eye camps in many remote areas of India. Aravind doctors now perform more than 225,000 eye surgeries and see more than one million patients a year.

Aravind has a commitment to excellence that allows it to offer services to rich and poor alike. The hospitals are organized so efficiently that not a moment is wasted. Businessmen honor Dr. V's management skills; the regular fee paid by one patient covers the cost of providing free care to three more patients. However, what struck William B. Stewart, MD, Medical Director of the Institute for Health & Healing, when he first visited Aravind was how infused the staff is with conscious purpose and steadfast commitment. According to Dr. Stewart, "I came to India to teach specialized surgical skills, but I learned far more than I taught. Restoring sight at Aravind is not just a surgical procedure, it's a metaphor for seeing yourself and seeing others fully."

A follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, Dr. V has imbued the hospital environment with the values of compassion and service. He begins each day with readings from spiritual texts, and many staff begin their mornings in the hospital's meditation room. "Dr. V and his co-workers have an energy that allows them to work extremely long hours and still maintain a sense of caring and equanimity," Stewart says. "It is clear they are aligned with their truth and conscious of a greater good."

Dr. V is a global citizen, and is constantly finding ways to expand his work beyond India's borders. Worldwide, 45 million people are blind, most of them in developing countries. Aravind trains and inspires doctors, nurses and technicians from other developing countries on how to provide state-of-the-art eye care with limited resources.

Dr. V's personal story is no less remarkable than the origins of Aravind. He was in training as an OB/GYN specialist but when rheumatoid arthritis crippled his hands, he transferred to ophthalmology. With great effort he learned how to hold surgical instruments with arthritic hands. In his career he has performed more than 100,000 successful eye surgeries. "Dr. V has achieved a grand vision -- free of ego and personal ambition," says Dr. Stewart. "He embodies inner authenticity and is a model of service to humankind that transcends cultural, religious, and political boundaries. If you passed him on the street you may not notice him, but when you spend time in his presence, you know you are in contact with someone of deep spirit who will bring new perspective to your life."

The Institute for Health & Healing is honored to be hosting Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy in the San Francisco Bay Area on February 9 and 10, 2005 in collaboration with the Seva Foundation. For more information, contact us at (415) 600-1562 or visit us at www.myhealthandhealing.org.