Sanduk Ruit was born in the mid 1950s, into a poor and humble farming community in the mountains of Nepal. Life expectancy was not long, child mortality high, blindness everywhere. And yet from this deprivation, he becomes a world famous healer of the blind, adapting and improving surgery procedures and techniques to pioneer a new and innovative way of cataract surgery, bringing sight back to hundreds of thousands of people. He teams up with Australian ophthalmoloigst Fred Hollows, also a pioneer in the field of cataract surgery and together they take on the rigid and conservative Western medical system to revolutionise the way cataract surgery is done. A real David and Goliath story. Never once does Ruit lose his sense of where he comes from, despite all the fame, accolades, the rich and famous wanting to be associated with him. He continues to perform hundreds of operations a day, in bare feet, in the most impossible environments, with the minimum of facilities and sanitation. His motivation? Seeing what the miracle of sight does to a person, deprived of it for so many years. The rebirth of a life.
The writer has spent a lot of time with Ruit his family, his team of doctors and nurses. She tells his story in his words, his vision, his perseverance and determination. His compassion and love for his fellow man comes shining through, as does his humour, and humbleness. The writer clearly adores her subject, what he represents and how in this deeply troubled world we live in, there are still some very very good people. Outstanding.
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