He provides sight to the needy

Dr T P Lahane talking to the patients while Dr Gopal Arora look on.

Dr Tatyarao Lahane and Dr Ragini Parekh checking the patients after surgery.

Dr Tatyarao Lahane explaining the case to Dr Pinak Dande. Dr V G Pol look on.

 

By Vikas Vaidya

It was in 1999 when Baba Amte found that the leprosy patients might lose vision after some time as their pupils get reduced. He came to know about Dr T P Lahane, fondly known as Tatyarao Lahane. Tatyarao visited Anandvan, checked the patients and his association with Anandvan began.
Dr Lahane started visiting Anandvan every year to give sight to the needy. This particular activity did not remain to leprosy patients alone. The people from near peripherry started visiting the camp to get themselves checked up. Dr Lahane was instrumental in giving smile to them.
For the past 15 years, doctors from JJ Hospital of which Dr Lahane is Dean and coordinators from iCare Foundation, a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), have been visiting Anandwan in the state’s Chandrapur district to treat eye-related problems of the people living there.
Every year around 10,000 residents and tribals from surrounding areas attend the eye check-up camp. “We check each and every patient but all are not fit to get surgery done. There are various aspects like Blood Pressure, blood sugar, heart ailment that are to be looked properly before performing surgery. Most of the time 70 per cent patients become unfit,” said Padma Shree Dr Lahane.
His mobile was continuously ringing as he was handling the charge of Director of Medical Education. On the other the poor and old patients were asking him whether the food had been arranged or not to their residence aspect. Dr Lahane was answering to them. “Earlier these patients used to come here and wait in the open for their turn. Then we got shed from the Chief Minister and we call this hall as CM hall,” pointed out Dr Lahane.
“The crowd keeps increasing every year. Most people attending the camps here are tribals, disabled people and labourers. Patients come from different districts including Nagpur, Gadchiroli and Chandrapur, even from other States. First year I remember, I had performed surgeries on 76 patients. That number rose to over 2,000” said Dr Lahane.
According to Dr Lahane happiness and satisfaction are two different aspects. These people express satisfication with the treatment they receive for their vision-related problems and that the dedication of Dr Lahane and the iCare Foundation team is unmatched.
Cataract surgery is a bit complicated for leprosy patients. This is because post-operation care is very important. Most of them are not aware about the post-surgery care. They touch the eyes with the hands. That can affect the whole purpose of the surgery. Dr Lahane comes here with his colleague Dr Ragini Parekh and 16 others. They all are trained how to keep the patients telling about post-operative care. The team gets excellent support from Dr VG Pol, Medical Officer at the Maharogi Sewa Samiti set up by Baba Amte.
Dr Lahane, who is recognised for his exceptional eye surgery techniques hails from farmer’s family in Latur district. His sheer determination and will power made him pursue MBBS. He then pursued ophthalmology after he realized that he would not get paid a residency stipend if he opted for paediatrics or orthopaedics.
It was also his own illness, a bilateral kidney failure, for which he underwent a kidney transplant in 1995 after living on weekly dialysis sessions. His mother gave him a new lease of life by donating one of her kidneys and this has taught him that what he should do for others.
Dr Lahane and his team successfully conducted more than 20,000 surgeries in Anandwan. He set the record of operating on 1,500 leprosy patients in a span of 40 minutes with 100 per cent results.
“We kept OPD on four days. In between surgeries are performed. By the time we conduct the next OPD, we re-check the patients who were operated in earlier batch. In Last batch we check only leprosy patients,” said Dr Lahane.
This year he started his camp on November 26 and it will end on December 6.
According to the observations of Dr Lahane and his team a 35 per cent complications in the patients after undergoing eye surgeries take place, but that was reduced to only one complication among those leprosy patients.
In 2007, Dr Lahane set a world record by performing 100,000 cataract operations. In the previous years, both Dr Lahane and Dr Ragini Parekh from JJ Hospital have set world records with more than 1 lakh cataract surgeries to their credit.
I got Padma Shree in 2008. I wanted to take personal blessings of Baba. I booked the air ticket. But I reached for his funeral. I still regret it. But I have decided to continue this philanthropic work to pay homage to him. His son Dr Vikas Amte and his family is helping me a lot. I am planning to start one Raghunath Netralaya which will take care of poor and needy. I shall keep coming to Anandvan always,” said Dr Amte with tears in his eyes.