Sanduk Ruit

Sanduk Ruit (सन्दुक रूइत,, born September 4, 1954) is an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon) from Nepal who was involved to restore the sight of over 180,000 people across Africa and Asia using small-incision cataract surgery.

Ruit is the founder and the executive director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which manufactures intraocular lenses for surgical implantation at a fraction of the previous manufacturing cost.

The low cost has made cataract surgeries slightly cheaper in Nepal.

Ruit has been referred to as the "God of Sight".

He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding, considered to be the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for "placing Nepal at the forefront of developing safe, effective, and economical procedures for cataract surgery, enabling the needlessly blind in even the poorest countries to see again."

He was awarded with the Isa award, the highest civilian award in Bahrain by the king of Bahrain for developing highly affordable and sustainable ways to cure cataracts throughout the developing world with a cash prize of 1 million dollars.

Ruit was born on September 4, 1954, to rural, illiterate parents, father Sonam Ruit and mother Kesang Ruit, in the remote mountainous village Olangchunggola in the border with Tibet in Taplejung district of northeast Nepal.

His village of 200 people was located 11,000 feet above the sea level on the lap of the world's third-highest peak, Mt. Kanchenjunga.

It is one of the most remote regions of Nepal with no electricity, school, health facilities or modern means of communication, and lies blanketed under snow for six to nine months a year.

Ruit's family made a subsistence living from small agriculture, petty trading and livestock farming.

Ruit was the second of his parents’ six children.

He lost three siblings – an elder brother to diarrhea at age three and younger sister Chundak to fever at age eight.

In many interviews, Ruit has mentioned that for him, the most painful was his younger sister Yangla's death.

Yangla was his childhood companion, and he was to develop a special bond with her over the years.

She died at 15 of tuberculosis as the family was too poor to afford treatment that could have saved her life.

In many interviews, Ruit has said that this loss made a strong mark on him and instilled in him a resolve to become a doctor and work for the poor who would not otherwise have access to healthcare.

The nearest school from his village was fifteen days' walk away in Darjeeling.

His father, a small-time businessman, sent Ruit to St Robert's School in Darjeeling at the age of seven, and provided financial support for his early medical career.

Ruit's life in Darjeeling was hard as he was away from his parents and home for about four-five years.

After a few years he returned to Nepal and continued his study.

In 1969, Ruit graduated from Siddhartha Vanasthali School in Kathmandu, Nepal, and later was further educated in India.

He studied a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from King George's Medical College, Lucknow with scholarship from 1972 to 1976.

Ruit then returned to Nepal and worked as a General Physician in Bir Hospital, Kathmandu for three years.

Later he wanted to specialize in ophthalmology, so he continued his studies from 1981 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi with a scholarship and achieved his Master's Degree.

After three years in 1984 he returned to Nepal and worked in an eye hospital in Tripureshwor for eight years.

Meanwhile Australian ophthalmologist Fred Hollows was in Nepal as a mentor, selected by WHO.

He noticed Ruit's work and determination and offered him further study about cataract surgery in Australia in 1986.

Ruit further studied in Australia, Netherlands and the United States.

While in Australia, Ruit gained further deep specialization in eye surgery.

Ruit and Hollows created the Small Incision Cataract Surgery (SICS) which used intraocular lenses, and Ruit became the first Nepali doctor to use intraocular lenses.

To gain donations to make eye surgeries more affordable and accessible in Nepal, he established Nepal Eye Program Australia, later renamed The Fred Hollows Foundation.

He was offered to stay and work in Australia, but he returned to Nepal and continued to work in Tripureshwor eye hospital.

Working in Australia in 1986, Ruit and Fred Hollows developed a strategy for using inexpensive intraocular lenses to bring small-incision cataract surgery to the developing world.

However, the lenses remained too expensive for many cataract patients.

Ruit married Nanda Shrestha, an ophthalmic nurse in 1987.

He has one son and two daughters.

In 1994, Dr. Ruit founded the Tilganga Eye Center, now called the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, in Kathmandu.

In 1995, Ruit developed a new intraocular lens that could be produced far more cheaply and which, as of 2010, is used in over 60 countries.

Ruit's method is now taught in U.S. medical schools.

Despite being far cheaper, Ruit's method has the same success rate as western techniques: 98% at six months.