West Virginia doctor to be honoured in AP

City-born noted West Virginia doctor VK Raju is being honoured by Rotary Club of Vijayawada for his dedicated service in eradicating blindness among children.

He will be felicitated at a one-day conference “Prevention of Blindness in Childhood and beyond,” on Friday.

Dr Raju started an eye camp in his native of Vijayawada city in 1977 with the help of Rotary Club; it has now grown into a mass global non-profit healthcare movement with free eye surgeries being performed in 25 countries with over 250 camps in the city alone.

The doctor currently serves as a clinical professor of ophthalmology at West Virginia University where he has been teaching since 1976. Before that, Dr Raju spent two years teaching at the Royal Eye Hospital of London. He is also the director of the International Ocular Surface Society, the director of the Ocular Surface Research and Education Foundation, and the medical director and past president of the Eye Foundation of America.

He noticed that there was no equipment to perform cataract surgeries on children in the city in 1977 and he decided to import an instrument from the US called Ocutome in 1979 at the cost of $25, 000 by borrowing money from the banks. The instrument had just come into the US market and no such tiny cutting and aspiration equipment exist before for safe surgery on children. That proved to be a turning point in the lives of thousands of children affected by plethora of eye diseases such as cataract and corneal damage.

He has also conducted free eye camps in Dharavi, world’s largest slum in Mumbai. Towards this end, he launched two eye institutes in Kakinada and Goutami Eye Institute in Rajamundry in 1993 and 2005 respectively to bring in world class teaching, training and outreach programs.

He specialises and priorities in preventing blindness in infants and children as he feels that their contribution to the society may last 70 to 75 years as compared to treating an adult who is 40 or 50 years old. “But they do not deny treatment to any adult if his vision is affected. By eradicating blindness among infants and children, we are building a strong and healthy India and the world, and the future generation is protected,” he says.

Dr Raju was the recipient of the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement during the 2017 West Virginia State Medical Association Healthcare Summit this past August. The inaugural award recognized him for his lifelong commitment to the advancement of science, medicine and public health.

He was the recipient with American Medical Association Foundation’s Dr Nathen Davis International Award in Medicine. He was also inducted into University of Toledo’s Global Medical Mission Hall of Fame. He also received Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman Award.

He received his medical degree at Andhra University in India, and then travelled to the University of London to complete an ophthalmology residency and fellowship. In the US, Dr Raju completed an anterior segment surgery fellowship at Louisiana State University. Dr Raju’s extensive accomplishments continue as he is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and of the American College of Surgeons.