Still a Surgeon Despite His Health, Partial Paralysis, and Wheelchair

posted on Feb 25 by Sherri in the Disability News, Health, Healthcare category

Doctor Sharad Kuman Dicksheet is 80 years old, fighting for his life with cancer, has had triple bypass surgery, and uses a wheelchair after an accident paralyzed his right side. You would expect Dr. Dicksheet to be confined to a hospital bed, but this dedicated surgeon still has a thriving plastic surgery practice both in New York and abroad. While facing a host of physical illnesses and disabilities, the doctor still divides his time among New York and India to give Indian children with facial deformities plastic surgery free of cost to them.

Nominated for the Nobel Prize five times, Dr. Dicksheet considers fixing facial deformities to be his life’s work and won’t let his disabilities get in the way. “My troubles are nothing when compared to the problems of children who come in for surgeries and the stigma they face in life because of their disfigurement. My sole aim in life is to give them a better life,” said Dr. Dicksheet in an interview with the Times of India.

Even though he may consider “his troubles” no hindrance to his important medical work, Dr. Dicksheet’s physical limitations are severe. In 1978, he suffered an accident which paralyzed his right side and left him in a wheelchair. He then suffered a heart attack which required triple bypass surgery, and though he has recovered, his age presents other problems. However, Dr. Dicksheet has no intention of giving up his practice.

Despite these physical limitations, the good doctor has been providing his services to poor children in India for 42 years, performing over two million surgeries. He travels through poorer parts of India performing between 100 and 150 surgeries per day. Dr. Dicksheet provides many different kinds of facial surgeries including cleft palate and lip surgery, birthmark removal, ptosis or drooping eye surgery, and facial scar removal surgery.

Source:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wheelchair-bound-battling-cancer-this-docs-still-a-surgeon/articleshow/7323330.cms