Fri, 23 Oct, 2026, 04:57 am
Reported by The Better India
Many patients arrive at retina specialist Dr Bhavin Patel's Surat hospital late. A blurred eye is ignored for months, a cataract is dismissed as old age, or an infection is treated at home too long.
Dr Patel, born into a family of doctors and trained at Sankara Nethralaya, returned to Gujarat in 2008. Surat had few retina specialists, so early treatment was rare. He saw many conditions progress beyond recovery.
India's national blindness survey for 2015 to 19 found nearly 93% of blindness is avoidable, and cataract alone causes over two-thirds of cases. Rural Gujarat faces a higher risk from late diagnosis and low awareness.
Realising that waiting would leave many behind, Dr Patel opened Swami Vivekananda Netra Mandir Hospital in 2008. His trust, founded in 2021, runs nearly 40 monthly village camps and has done over 30,000 free surgeries.
Camps reach South Gujarat villages in Navsari, Bardoli, Vyara and Valsad. Temple networks help volunteers mobilise residents, and teams of eight to ten, including optometrists and trained tribal members, screen villagers for cataracts on site.
