A Sankara surgeon in the operating room

Today's my last day in India... and this morning a group of us went to visit the Sankara Eye Hospital, one of our team's clients (see my first posting).  Sankara was started by Dr. RV Ramani and his wife back in the 70's, initially providing free medical care two days a week in their clinic.  Over the years, their focus became ophthalmology, with the mission of eliminating preventable and curable blindness in India.  Sankara currently has 11 eye hospitals, with the goal of 20 hospitals by 2020.  They operate on a sustainable 80/20 model, with 20% of upper and middle class paying patients supporting the surgeries of the 80% non-paying patients from rural villages.

We learned about the entire process of selecting patients in the rural villages through 'eye camps' on the weekends, bringing patients to the Sankara Hospital in Coimbatore, the operations and recoveries, as well as follow up.  We also got to see the operating and recovery rooms, and afterward, the founder Dr. Ramani, met with us.  Dr. Ramani is an amazing man, and when he found out I lived in San Francisco, he told me about Sankara Eye Foundation in San Jose, CA, which is run by volunteers to support the hospitals in India.  I'm excited to make a visit down there!

Patients in the recovery room

35,000 surgeries in 2011!