Indian once performed 833 eye surgeries in 14 hours
Eye surgeon MC Modi in 1968 carried out 833 cataract operations in 14 hours in Tirupati. He is also known to have been recognised by the Guinness World Records for performing the highest number of eye surgeries in a day. During his lifetime, he reportedly performed about 7 lakh eye surgeries, all of which were free.
What Mother Teresa is to Calcutta's dying destitutes, Dr Murugappa Chennaveerappa Modi, 72. is to the poor blind villagers of Karnataka. For 45 years. Modi, the internationally recognised eye surgeon, has been waging a one-man war against blindness. In 1986, his name appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records for performing 833 eye operations in a day, the highest in the world. The operations were conducted in Tirupati in 1968 over 14 continuous hours. Modi. Kannukota anna (the brother who gives vision) to the local people, has performed as many as 5.79 lakh eye operations so far. And his labour has always been free.For Modi, his mission is spiritual. "I see myself as a poojary. The patient is my god, every village is my place of pilgrimage, the operating table is my shrine and my instruments are the accessories of worship," says the sprightly surgeon who lives a spartan existence. Born of humble parentage - a Kannadiga from Bijapur district - Modi threw away a lucrative career in private practice after attending Gandhiji's historic prayer meeting at Bombay on August 8, 1942 where the Quit India resolution was passed. That meeting changed his life. And Modi, the gifted ophthalmologist, dedicated his life to the sightless."I felt affected when I saw blind people begging. They just did not have money to go to doctors." Modi recalled.And those who had the money had often sold their jewellery or livestock to put it together for the treatment. This tragic fact of rural India spurred Modi to pioneer the concept of mass eye camps.In an assembly line fashion, Modi operates 40 patients an hour, attending to four patients at a time. Ambidextrous, he performs delicate eye surgeries with his left hand. He does cataract operations, squint corrections and cornea transplants. Earlier, Modi used to perform 600 to 700 operations a day in his camps. But now in Karnataka, he operates on 200 to 300 patients every day.His phenomenal contributions for the sightless have not gone unappreciated. Recognition has come to him through the Padma Shree and Padma Bhushan. Hellen Keller, the blind and deaf-mute American author, who attended one of his camps in 1954 asked Modi: "Have you insured your hands?" In his mass eye camps, apart from the 5.79 lakh operations, he has examined 50 lakh patients and given free food to over 100 lakh persons.Initially Modi had a hard time communicating his mission to the people. "Villagers used to ask me if I was that good, why was I operating for tree? Modi reminisced. 