CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. Fred Hollows
(April 9, 1929 – Feb 10, 1993)
💠New Zealand Born-Australian Ophthalmologist
His contributions…
🔸Fred Hollows was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. During his school summer holidays he enrolled for work at a Mental Health Hospital. There he was highly inspired by the work of physicians. As a result, he enrolled at Otago Medical School, Dunedin.
🔸During his medical studies, he got interested in Ophthalmology. So, he moved to UK and specialized in Ophthalmology at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.
🔸After his studies, Dr. Fred returned to Australia and served as an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
🔸During 1968, Dr. Fred was shocked to see the indigenous Aboriginal Australian children and adults who visited his clinic suffering from blinding trachoma.
🔸As trachoma is highly contagious, he immediately travelled to northern territory of Australia, where the Aboriginal Australians live. There he was stunned to see thousands of people suffering from trachoma.
🔸All this inspired Dr. Fred to work for the betterment of the trachoma affected patients. So, he stayed there for 3 years and arranged 9 team of 80 doctors and visited 465 remote communities in outback Australia.
🔸The team examined 60,000 indigenous people and treated around 30,000 patients affected by trachoma including 10,000 Ophthalmic surgeries.
🔸Meanwhile, Dr. Fred got appointed as the Director of the Government funded National Trachoma and Eye Health Program.
🔸Further on behalf of World Health Organisation, he visited to many countries such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma to train the local doctors to perform eye surgeries.
🔸Unfortunately in the year 1987, he was diagnosed with renal cancer but he still wanted to do more…
🔸Dr. Fred wanted to produce an affordable intraocular lens to combat cataract. Therefore, he established Intraocular Lens Laboratories at Eritrea in East Africa and in Nepal to manufacture and provide affordable intraocular lenses.
🔸During the last few months of his life, he travelled to Vietnam to train over 300 Vietnamese Ophthalmologists in modern eye surgery techniques.
🔸Ultimately, he was honoured for his meritorious and selfless service with many significant awards…
🔅 Australian of the Year in 1990.
🔅 Rotary Award for World Understanding in 1993.
🔅 Albert Schweitzer Award of Distinction in 1993.
🔅 Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists Medal in 1993.
🔸Five months before his death, he launched The Fred Hollow Foundation to ensure that his work continued in the future.
🔸Today, the Foundation serves in more than 25 countries and has restored the sight of millions of people worldwide. Certainly, Dr. Fred has became a proof that one person can take the world to a better place.
A Day to Commemorate…
A Man with Unstoppable Vision
Dr. Fred Hollows 🙏🏼
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