CHENNAI: The Madras City Ophthalmological Association presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to three renowned opthalmologists — Dr E T Selvam, retired Professor, late Dr J Agarwal, chairman of Agarwal Eye Hospital and Dr S S Badrinath, chairman of Sankara Nethralaya — on Sunday.
Dr E T Selvam, who is called father of eye camps, was honoured for his role in taking eye camps to the rural areas in the country. He was a retired professor at Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Ophthalmic Hospital (RIOGOH) and had served in government hospitals outside Madras, Thanjavur, Madurai, Tiruchy and Pudukottai.
Dr Amar Agarwal received the award on behalf of this father, late Dr J Agarwal. Dr Agarwal had started with a two-bed eye hospital that later grew into one of the major eye centres in the world. He was the first to bring Cryo extraction to India in 1960s, Phaco-emulsification in the 70s, Refractive keratoplasty in the 80s, and the sub-1 mm incision size by Phakonit in the 90s. He had also been awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006 and the Singapore National Eye Centre Award in 1993.
Dr S S Badrinath, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1996 and Dr B C Roy National Award in 1991, returned to the city to start quality healthcare services when overseas employment for super-specialty medical professionals was at its peak.
Lauding the achievements of “the holy trinity” as they are called, Chief Secretary K S Sripathi said the State has become a centre of ophthalmology. He pointed out that in 2008-09, about 6,50,092 cataract surgeries were done in the State, of which 5,86,000 were performed by private institutions.
Meanwhile, even the government has spent a lot in eye care, he said. About 28,58,584 spectacles have been distributed to students from Class VI to VIII of all government schools to correct refractive errors.