Sanduk Ruit

Dr. Sanduk Ruit
Dr. Sanduk Ruit
Born	1955 Taplejung District, Nepal
Nationality	Nepali
Alma mater	All India Institute of Medical Sciences
Occupation	Eye Surgeon
Spouse	Nanda Ruit
Children	One son and two daughters
Website	www.tilganga.org

Dr. Sanduk Ruit is a Nepali eye surgeon whose innovative small-incision cataract surgery with the use of inexpensive intraocular lenses has enabled hundreds of thousands of poor cataract patients of Nepal and other countries to regain their sight. In June 2006, Dr. Ruit was awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay Award (the Asian Nobel prize). He has won Thailand's Prince Mahidol Award 2007.

Biography

Early life and education

Ruit was born in 1955 to uneducated parents in the remote Olangchungola Pass in Taplejung District of northeast Nepal, a mountain area of Nepal so poor and remote that the nearest school was eleven days away by foot However, his father, a small time businessman, placed a priority on providing education to his children, and sent Dr Ruit to St Robert’s School in Darjeeling for studies and also provided financial support in his early medical career.

Ruit's childhood dream was that of becoming a pilot during his schooldays. But knowing the death of his elder brother before his birth was due to diarrhea, and being with his younger sister when she died of tuberculosis in 1964, and suffering the loss of another younger sister of pneumonia all worked to changed his heart. "That pinched my heart and I decided to become a doctor,” the eyesight specialist stated.

In 1969 Dr Ruit received his School Leaving Certificate from Siddhartha Vanasthali School in Kathmandu, Nepal, and later was educated in India beginning in 1981 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and also studied in the Netherlands, Australia and the United States, and was mentored by an Australian Professor, Dr. Fred Hollows.

Major works

In 1986, Ruit and Hollows developed a strategy to use small-incision cataract surgery (SICS) in the developing world at the community level, through the use of a low-cost intraocular lens (IOL). Dr. Ruit was the first Nepali doctor to use IOLs in cataract surgery.

However, the high cost of IOLs placed them out of reach for many poor cataract patients, and Ruit started looking for alternatives to reduce the cost of IOLs. In 1995 he devised an international standard IOL that could be produced for far less than those manufactured in developed countries. The cost of IOLs that was around US$ 100, has now been reduced to US$ 3.5.

Vision

Ruit joined with a few people who shared his vision to start the Tilganga Eye Center on June 7, 1994, but due to opposition by the establishment who considered the technique too risky, they virtually operated underground for six months. His efficient model of eye care is now practiced in many parts of the world, with U.S. military surgeons being scheduled to be trained under Dr. Ruit as well.

Ruit is passionate about being able to do much good for so many people in a short time and see the results, and while the work is technically very demanding he stated that he loves microsurgery very much. Ruit also credits his wife, an ophthalmic nurse whom he married in 1987, as being a pillar of strength to him in his difficult days while pursuing his dream project of Tilganga.

Media

A National Geographic documentary Inside North Korea on Dr. Ruit's work therein was remarkable not only in being able to document his successful surgery in the highly controlled country, but the overt adulation given to Kim Jong-il by the patients as a result.

Awards

On 18 May 2007, Ruit was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia, "for service to humanity by establishing eye care services in Nepal and surrounding countries, and for his work in teaching and training surgeons, and technical innovation".

June 2006, Dr. Ruit was awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

External links

• "Tilganga Institute of Opthalmology"
• "God of Sight"
• "Dr. Sanduk Ruit and Ruitectomy"
• "Citation for Sanduk Ruit"