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In January 2025, Nepalese eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit was awarded Bahrain’s prestigious Isa Award for Service to Humanity, catapulting his life’s work into global headlines. Known as the "God of Sight" among his patients, Dr Ruit has quietly led a revolution in cataract surgery—restoring vision to over 100,000 underprivileged people worldwide, often at zero cost.
But what’s even more extraordinary? Each surgery, which can cost Rs 2.5 lakh ($3,000) in the West, is performed by his team for just Rs 2,000 ($25) using lenses they manufacture themselves.
In April 2025, Ruit’s team trekked over 4,300 meters into Dolpo, one of the most inaccessible regions of Nepal, during the ancient Shey Festival. Battling landslides and freezing winds, they screened 1,200 villagers and performed 98 cataract surgeries in makeshift operating rooms.
“The gratitude in a grandmother’s eyes when she sees her grandchild again – that’s worth every hardship,” Dr Ruit said. His sutureless small-incision cataract surgery (SICS) technique, honed over three decades, delivers outcomes comparable to top-tier Western methods but at a fraction of the cost.
Born in Olangchungola, a secluded Himalayan village near Tibet, Dr Ruit’s early life was marked by tragedy. At 17, he carried his sister’s body for days after she died from untreated tuberculosis. That loss sparked his lifelong resolve: poverty should not mean suffering.
Today, his Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu performs 2,500 eye surgeries every week, 40% of which are completely free. The intraocular lenses, once sold for Rs 16,000 ($200), are now made in-house for just Rs 320 ($4) — a 98% reduction that flipped the cataract surgery industry on its head.
The story of Dr Ruit cannot be told without Australian ophthalmologist Fred Hollows, his mentor and close collaborator. In the 1980s, the duo conducted blindness surveys across Nepal, which later evolved into the Tilganga Institute, established in 1994.
Hollows and Ruit proved that top-quality surgery didn’t need to be expensive, setting up Nepal’s first lens manufacturing facility. After Hollows’ death in 1993, Ruit continued the mission, co-founding the Himalayan Cataract Project with American surgeon Dr Geoffrey Tabin, training eye surgeons across 20+ countries.
Their impact? Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Rwanda have adopted the model. In Africa alone, over 50,000 surgeries are performed each year following his protocols.
Dr Geoffrey Tabin aptly said, “He didn’t just invent a surgery—he built an ecosystem.” Through surgical camps, community health outreach, and surgeon training programs, Dr Ruit has created a self-sustaining model of equitable healthcare.
His technique—now taught at Harvard Medical School—has become the global gold standard for affordable cataract treatment. With 87% of patients achieving 20/40 vision or better, it proves that quality doesn’t have to come at a premium.
The 2025 Isa Award jury commended Dr Ruit for his “lifelong war against needless blindness.” But ask the doctor himself, and he’ll downplay the accolades. “The poor deserve the best—not the leftovers,” he insists.
This isn’t just about restoring sight—it’s about restoring dignity, mobility, and independence to people pushed to the margins. His model shows that healthcare can be compassionate, cost-effective, and scalable—a lesson the world urgently needs.
In an era where AI diagnoses and robotic surgeries dominate headlines, Dr Ruit’s grassroots approach reminds us what true medical innovation looks like: not just smart, but human. He’s taught the world that vision loss is often not a medical inevitability—but a moral one.
And with his work still expanding across continents, the ripple effects of his mission are just beginning. Now the biggest question now is: How many more lives can he change before the world finally catches up with his vision?
Pic Credits: Dr Sanduk Ruit, Instagram
(This article is intended for your general information only. Zee News does not vouch for its accuracy or reliability.)
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