Dr. Noshir H. Antia- Father of Leprosy Surgery
Plastic surgeons are always considered to be the doctors of rich man’s world. However, Dr Noshir H. Antia was a legendry Plastic Surgeon who performed plastic surgery to help thousands of patients suffering from leprosy, a contagious disease affecting the skin and the nerves, resulting in unsightly mutilations and functional deformities.
Dr Noshir Antia, a globally well known surgeon for his pioneering work amongst leprosy patients, demonstrated an alternative model of low-cost, easily accessible healthcare through his lifelong commitment to research-based community health in rural India. His contributions in diverse fields of health are legendary and had significant impact on the course of India’s health policies in the last decades.
Dr. Antia after graduating from Grant Medical College and the J.J. Group of Hospitals, Mumbai, India, completed post-graduate studies in general surgery from England .Dr. Antia in England worked with Sir Harold Gillie, founder of modern plastic surgery who inspired him to become a Plastic Surgeon. Dr. Antia soon came back to India and he came across leprosy patients with several deformities isolated behind a barbed wire fence, treated almost like criminals while cycling past a Government leprosy colony in Pune, India.Dr. Antia on that day resolved to help the victims of this dreaded disease. Since then he worked tirelessly for correcting the deformities of leprosy by applying principles of plastic surgery with his whole might.
Quoting Dr. Antia in his initial days: “Since leprosy patients had hitherto not been admitted to non-missionary hospitals, and as no one was willing to assist me for fear of this disease, I had to go by myself to the Kondhwa Leprosy Hospital on the outskirts of Pune. I carried my own instruments and drapes and operated on a rickety wooden table with other patients as the only assistants. One holding a torch, one boiling instruments in a hundi and one wearing a gown and gloves for surgical assistance! Within nine months I was able to demonstrate that all deformities of the face caused by this disease could be corrected by utilizing and modifying the basic principles of plastic surgery. All this had to be undertaken under local anesthesia. The results were good, even though the table broke during the first operation and hence the rest of the operations had to be completed on the floor!”
Later, Dr. Antia started a plastic surgery unit in Grant Medical College and the J. J. Group of Hospitals, Mumbai, India. For the first time ever, Antia admitted leprosy patients for corrective surgery despite warnings by colleagues that this would drive other patients away.Quoting Dr. Antia: “When I started to admit my leprosy patients into general wards, the Hospital warned me that there would be a public outcry,” he said. “But of course there wasn’t. It was only the doctors who were afraid”
Antia’s achievements have been widely recognized and acclaimed. Though he received several awards like Padma Shri and the prestigious Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, but the award dearest to his heart “is the love and affection that is provided by the patients, colleagues and those whom we have trained, including village women”.Dr. Antia delighted in saying that the greatest gift he ever received was from a leprosy patient who threw a prosthetic shoe at him, saying it did not suit his needs. “I was pleased to have so well rehabilitated him that he could express himself without fear.”
Dr. Noshir Antia showed the world how most problems can be solved if there is the necessary desire and will. Until his death on June 26, 2007 in Pune, India at 85, he fought for the betterment of the poor and helped in rehabilitating thousands of the leprosy patients.
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