Hyderabad: Dr Shyam Sunder Prasad, an ophthalmic and corneo-plastic surgeon, who was recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award by the AP Ophthalmological Society at Rajahmundry, clearly remembers one surgery in his 53-year profession that changed his life.
After completing his MBBS from Osmania University in 1961, he had gone to the US and was in the middle of an internship at St. Luke’s Hospital in North Dakota and at the same time trying for a residency job of an ophthalmologist. “But considering that it was one of the most popular branches of medicine, I was told that I might have to wait around eight years for it,” he says.
But one day when he wasn’t on call, but present at the hospital, he got to assist one Dr Hunter in a complicated delivery.
He adds, “After the surgery, on coming to know that I had volunteered even when I wasn’t on duty, Dr Hunter and his colleagues helped me get a residency programme at the State University of New York. That one surgery, transformed the my life.”
Dr Prasad currently heads Kanchan Eye Hospital and Research Centre (which he had established in 1985). He has been a visiting faculty in colleges in the US, the UK, Singapore, Indonesia, Bali, South Africa among others.
He has received numerous awards like the Residency Award for original research paper by the State University of New York (1966), an Eminent Scientist Award by Osmania University (1996) and the Best Paper award at the International Congress, Singapore.
The doctor, who has been currently conducting researches on droopy eyelids and polar cataracts informs that he wants to start a multidisciplinary hospital “where it would be possible to treat any kind of ailment under one roof. And underprivileged people can avail the facilities free of cost”.
