Nepalese “God of Sight” Has Restored Sight to 100,000 People

Hey! Hey! Great to see you today! You're looking good and I see you have your coffee mug at the ready. Well fill it to the brim, add a virtual treat to munch on and listen up as I give you some insight on eyesight.

Nepalese eye doctor Sanduk Ruit is being hailed as a miracle worker – he has single-handedly managed to restore the eyesight of over 100,000 people across two continents. All it takes him is a simple, five-minute procedure!

According to WHO statistics, 90 percent of the world’s blind population live in low-income areas, and 80 percent suffer from easily treatable conditions. But because of poverty and limited access to public health services, they are unable to seek treatment. Sanduk Ruit, driven by a belief that the world’s poorest people deserve high-quality eye care, has made it his life’s mission to treat such people. So he devised a quick five-minute technique that enables large droves of patients to be treated in a short period of time.

His genius technique involves making a small incision in the patient’s eye through which the cloudy cataract impairing the vision is removed. He then replaces it with an inexpensive artificial lens. He offers this surgery to scores of poor patients all over the world, and also teaches it to countless eye surgeons in the hope of curing as many blind people as possible.

The exemplary doctor has dedicated his life to holistic eye care. He runs an eye hospital called ‘Tilganga’ in Kathmandu, which was established in 1994, in collaboration with late Australian ophthalmologist and philanthropist Fred Hollows. Apart from providing world-class eye care to the people of Nepal, the hospital also manufactures state-of-the-art lenses that are used to treat cataracts or myopia. These lenses are exported to 30 countries worldwide.

For those patients who are unable to reach the hospital, Ruit and his team regularly conduct mobile eye camps in the remote areas of Nepal and its neighboring countries. The team treks for days, cleaning out tents, classrooms and animal stables to use as makeshift operating theaters. Their moment of triumph is when the eye patches come off a day after the operation – the restoration of sight, along with the expression of relief and joy, is a touching moment for everyone involved.

Australian photographer Michael Amendolia, who has been capturing these moving scenes since the early 1990s, has released some of his most striking photographs to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Tilanga. The images depict scenes of pure joy and immeasurable gratitude of the people who have received the gift of sight.

One of the most touching images in Amendolia’s collection is of an 80-year-old North Korean man who sees his son for the first time in 10 years. “Of course, the man who’s had the operation is so relieved because he can see again, but the whole family suddenly have a family member who can participate again in everything that happens at home,” he said.

Ruit himself said that he works with a sense of urgency to help and treat as many patients as possible. He grew up in a small, isolated village in the Himalayas – the nearest school was a week’s walk away! His sister died of tuberculosis when he was only 17 years old, and the terrible loss spurred him on to pursue a path of service.

“I am so grateful that I can make a difference in so many people’s lives,” Ruit, who is fondly known as the “God of Sight”, said. But today, at age 59, he still believes he has so much left to do.

Keep an eye on this doctor. He's building huge karma!

See ya, eh!

Bob