Bound to the wheelchair, his right side paralysed, his heart capacity at a mere 17 per cent, and suffering from terminal cancer of the larynx, Doctor Sharadkumar Dicksheet performs 50 to 70 operations a day for the disfigured poor of India.
By Rupali Arora

It is amazing, almost surreal. Plastic surgeon Dr Sharadkumar Dicksheet cannot take three steps without a walking stick, can barely speak and has problems breathing. Yet, Dr Dicksheet has performed over 57,000 free reconstructive surgeries to correct cleft lips, cleft palates, facial scars, droopy eyelids and squints since 1968.

"I do right side surgeries with my right hand and use the left hand for the other side," says the ambidextrous doctor. Dr Dicksheet uses a basic plastic surgery technique called Millard, but somehow cuts the time unbelievably short - just half an hour.

"The operation theatre is my temple," says Dr Dicksheet, "and I see God in my patients. Each time I come to India for camps it is a pilgrimage. I have been doing this for 33 years now." The 71-year-old surgeon spends five months every year in India in 30 camps organised across the country, giving poor disfigured patients a new face and new hope.

Five-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize - he was last nominated in 2001 - and honoured in India for his work with the Padma Shri, the doctor shuns the fanfaronade. "I don't like the celebrity status," says the Samaritan. "These awards mean nothing to me unless they are accompanied with a significant amount of money to help my cause. The prize money of the Nobel ($1 million) can be used to expand the camps."

At the time of this interview in December, Dr Dicksheet had flown briefly from India to Columbus, Ohio, where he won the world's only international award for child advocacy. The $100,000 Kellogg's Hannah Neil World of Children Award, presented to him by boxing great Muhammad Ali along with Kellogg chairman and CEO Carlos Gutierrez, will also go towards his India Project, Dr Dicksheet said.

Dr Dicksheet had a successful plastic surgery practice in Fairbanks, Alaska, when a car accident in 1978 left the right side of his body paralysed. The accident cost him his job. However, he made good the loss by winning three cosmetic surgery fellowships in Mexico, New York and Switzerland. Then he taught at King's County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.

Four years later, just when his recovery was complete, he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and lost his voice. "I used to sing every evening," says Dr Dicksheet. "Jagmohan was my favourite. The worst thing about laryngectomy was not being able to sing."

He then learnt oesophagal speech using the food pipe, inhaling and exhaling air to modulate. Since there is no connection between his nose and lungs, he breathes through his neck. A small metal tube in his throat keeps the food pipe open. The opening in the neck is covered with a special cloth that filters dust. In warm weather, like he experiences in India, he finds it very hard to breathe.

In 1988, Dr Dicksheet had a heart attack in the US, followed by a massive one in Ahmedabad in 1994. He was flown back to New York for a triple bypass surgery.

A decade ago, Dr Dicksheet formed a $1.5 million trust with his life insurance for which he pays $45,000 a year. When invested, the money will fetch more than $100,000 a year. Part of it will go for research and part to fund the expenses of plastic surgeons visiting the camps. It should help others carry on his work after his lifetime, along with five other trusts he has formed in India.

"The camps have been successful for 25 years," he says, "and I hope they will continue forever." Dr Dicksheet has used up almost all his other savings on his mission. He has been spending $50,000 every year on needles, sutures, anaesthetics and other surgical materials. The sutures are the most expensive part of the camps. "I used to keep thinking I'm going to die," he says, "so I spent all my money!" Mercifully, the camps now have moneyed sponsors.

"If a poor man is born with a deformity, he is scarred for life," says Dr Dicksheet, who lives in a high-rise apartment complex in Brooklyn, New York. "He can't afford Rs 25,000 for the surgery. As a result he can't get a job, he can't get married, and he loses his confidence. All it takes is a donation of $150 to take care of a deformed child in India, yet there are so few willing to help."

Two million babies are born with facial defects in India every year. There is a long line of patients who wait outside the camps overnight for the surgeon whom they revere as God. Hundreds of patients are screened in two hours, and most of the chosen ones are children aged 18 months to 11 years.

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