Google Doodle celebrated the birth centenary of renowned ophthalmologist Govindappa Venkataswamy on Monday. He founded Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai in 1976.
Born on October 1 in 1918 in Vadamalapuram, Tamil Nadu, Venkataswamy was permanently crippled by rheumatoid arthritis. However, despite his own health issues, nothing could stop him from what he wanted to be.
He attended a school in his village where students had to write on sand which collected from the riverbank as there was no pencil and paper. Later he went on to study Chemistry at the American College in Madurai and earned a degree of M.D. from Stanley Medical College in Madras in 1944.
The Aravind Eye Hospital which has now transformed into a major chain eradicating cataract-related blindness had begun as a 11-bed hospital under the aegis of Venkataswamy.
Venkataswamy was also known as 'Dr. V' among his patients. In 1973, he received the Padmashree award.
However, since then, North India has also achieved major technological developments in the field of eye care. Delhi-NCR region now has the state-of-the-art technology-Contoura Vision- for specs removal.
Contoura Vision has now been introduced in various centres in the Delhi-NCR, some of the prominent ones include AIIMS, Eye7 Hospitals and Medanta among others.
“Contoura Vision promises better results than previous technologies such as LASIK and SMILE since it works on the visual axis and corrects corneal irregularities which are not possible in other techniques,” said Dr. Sanjay Chaudhary, Director, Eye7 Eye Hospitals, who recently acquired this technology in Delhi.
“Contoura would soon replace SMILE and LASIK, as a premium procedure for vision correction”, he added.
This painless procedure takes about 10 minutes after which the patient can walk back home.
About Google Doodle:
On Google's homepages, it is a special but temporary alteration of the logo that celebrates events, holidays, achievements and people. In 1998, the first Google Doodle honored the Burning Man festival. It was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
(With IANS inputs)
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