NEW DELHI: Google on Monday marked the 100th birth anniversary of Indian ophthalmologist Dr
Govindappa Venkataswamy with a doodle.
Venkataswamy is the founder and chairman of
Aravind Eye Hospitals, the largest provider of eye care in the world.
The eye hospital has treated over 55 million patients and performed over 6.8 million surgeries and has played a crucial role in eradicating cataract-related blindness in the country.
According to Google blog post, he was known as Dr V to his colleagues and patients. He founded the Aravind Eye Hospital, which started as “an 11-bed facility and has grown into a network of clinics providing life-changing care to citizens of a nation struggling with high rates of blindness.”
Born on October 1, 1918, in Vadamalapuram, Tamil Nadu, Venkataswamy was permanently crippled by rheumatoid arthritis at age 30. However, despite his health issues, he learned how to perform surgery to remove cataracts—the leading cause of blindness.
“Dr V could perform 100 surgeries in a day. Addressing the problem of blindness in a holistic fashion, he set up eye camps in rural communities, a rehab centre for blind people, and a training program for ophthalmic assistants, personally performing over 100,000 successful eye surgeries,” the post added.
Venkataswamy was conferred with Padma Shri in 1973.
He died on July 7, 2006, at the age of 87.
