Diary of an Eye Surgeon: My Experiences in India, America, and Australia

New Delhi: The eye is one of the most important organ of the human body. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every five seconds one adult and every minute one child suffers from blindness. According to the Prevent Blindness Survey conducted in America, blindness is the third most feared cause of death after cancer and heart disease. A total of 4.3 crore people in the world are suffering from the curse of blindness, out of which one crore 80 lakh patients live in India. About 75 percent of eye patients suffering from blindness can regain their sight through treatment.

The book titled 'Diary of an Eye Surgeon: My Experiences in India, America, and Australia' is a detailed account of Dr. Suresh K. Pandey's remarkable life journey by becoming an eye surgeon to eradicate treatable blindness. Dr. Pandey is an internationally acclaimed eye surgeon as well as an author, motivational speaker, and cyclist. He has brought light to the lives of millions of patients through sight-restoring eye surgeries.

The autobiography begins with the small village 'Mohna' located in Rawatbhata tehsil, Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan, where Dr. Suresh K. Pandey was born in August 1968. Studying in the dim light of lantern at Mohna, braving every hardship that came his way, he dreamed of becoming an eye surgeon like his late grandfather, freedom fighter, late Dr. Kamta Prasad Pandey. Dadaji did special training in cataract operation and other eye operations in 1937 at Kishanlal Jalan Eye Hospital, Bhiwani (Haryana) under the supervision of late Dr. P. D. Giridhar. After the 'Bagi Ballia Movement' it became impossible for Dadaji to work as an eye specialist in Ballia (Uttar Pradesh).

Dadaji decided to leave Ballia in the year 1944 and moved eleven hundred kilometers away in Rajasthan to continue the fight against blindness and started the important work of sight restoring eye surgeries in a village called Mohna, District Chittorgarh. 

Dr. Suresh K. Pandey, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, never gave up and tried relentlessly to fulfill the dream of becoming an eye doctor to light up the dark world of millions of visually impaired patients. He stood first in Vikram University, Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) in Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) first year.

After this, without any coaching, he got selected in the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) in his first attempt and was admitted to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College, Jabalpur. Struggling with ragging and other hardships there, Dr. Pandey transformed himself from a shy person to a confident person to face the harsh conditions of the world.

After completing his medical graduation, he completed his post-graduation studies in Ophthalmology at the country's renowned Medical Institute, the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Dr. Pandey lived in America and Australia for seven years and gained mastery in eye surgery and research work at John A Moran Eye Centre, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and University of Sydney, Sydney Eye Hospital, Australia.

In the book titled 'Diary of an Eye Surgeon', Dr. Pandey shares with the readers his journey as a medical student and the challenges and difficulties he faced along the way in learning the art of ocular micro-surgery. Returning to India from Australia and working towards medical entrepreneurship, he shared the story of his passion and passion for starting a medical venture called SuVi Eye Hospital & Lasik Laser Center in Kota.

The entire team (Dr. Vidushi Sharma, Dr. Suresh K. Pandey, Dr. S.K. Gupta and Dr Nipun Bagrecha) completed more than one lakh successful eye operations and successfully treated about 20 lakh eye patients. In this book, Dr. Suresh Pandey has written his experiences and memoirs of working with the world's renowned ophthalmologists in the continents of India, USA, and Australia. While working as an eye surgeon in 'Shiksha Ki Kashi' Kota, Dr. Pandey has had the opportunity to interact with thousands of coaching students and motivate them to achieve their goals.

This book written by Dr. Pandey gives us a detailed account of the ups and downs of his life journey enriched with lessons of focus, perseverance, and spirituality. According to the poignant story of reaching 'Mohna Se Manzil Tak', a boy born in Mohna village resolved to become an eye doctor in his life, fought every difficulty in his way, studying in the dim light of the lantern 'Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya' According to the formula named, resolved to eradicate darkness from the lives of millions of patients of India. An inspirational book for anyone who wants to succeed despite life's many harrowing challenges, it proves the adage: where there's a will, there's a way.