Disabled doctor spends half of each year in India performing hundreds of free surgeries for people with facial disfigurements

From Mid-Day in Mumbai, India:

Dr. Sharadkumar Diksheet (pictured), 80, is among the one per cent of people who have survived a severe heart attack for the second time. In fact, his cardiologist had given him only one year to live. But that was in 1994.

He is no stranger to hardships. For one, he has no larynx, yet he speaks. Not from his voice box like most of us but from his oesophagus (food-pipe). Only 18 per cent of his heart is working. But these turbulences and a wheelchair-bound existence have not daunted the New York-based plastic surgeon and opthalmologist from pursuing what has become a second nature to him since 1968 -- bringing a smile, literally, to the faces of millions in the country who suffer from facial deformities such as cleft lips, ptosis (drooping of eyelids), squints, scars and spots.

A rare survivor, Dr Diksheet, who is an Indian by birth, camps in India six months in a year, offering solace in the form of free plastic surgery to poor families. Each camp happens through a local sponsor and a tie-up with a hospital, the last one being at the Kailash Hospital in Noida where the doctor managed an incredible 350 surgeries in three days.

The camp was sponsored by Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust. The Trust has been organizing the camp for the last three years now.

Dr Diksheet has one nurse who doubles as his assistant. Trained plastic surgeons from the US join him for a week at a time in the cities. In the remote interiors, he manages with whatever help he can find.

"New techniques and machines helps us a lot. I learnt a lot with Dr Diksheet," said Seema, senior nurse of Dr. Diksheet. He has been nominated for a string of prestigious awards, including the Nobel prize, Conrad Hilton humanitarian award and the Templeton award.