Kerala - Kochi

Giving a new face to the disfigured

For over 10 years, Dr. Adenwalla has provided free cleft surgery to about 13,000 patients

CHANGING LIVES: H. S. Adenwalla

A woman from a middle-class family walked into surgeon Hirji Sorab Adenwalla's office at the Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute here and placed her baby on his lap. Both mother and child had hare lips. "My parents had to sell off the land they owned to treat me. I have nothing to sell to treat my child. Wherever I take my child, people would not stop looking at her facial disfigurement. It hurts. Can you help me?" the woman asked Dr. Adenwalla, fighting tears.

The 76-year-old plastic surgeon surgically corrected the problem free of cost and put a brave new face on the child.

When Dr. Adewalla narrated the incident at the Four Seasons Hall in New York last week after receiving the Joseph McCarthy Award, instituted by Smile Train, the audience that included some of the top plastic surgeons in the world applauded. Dr. Joseph McCarthy, general editor of the 12-volume text, `Plastic surgery', considered the Bible of plastic surgeons, himself was there to hand over the award.

The award, which gets the hospital he works in Rs.11 lakh, is in recognition of "having demonstrated the highest ideals and noblest values in the medical profession and having made significant contribution to alleviate the suffering of disadvantaged children."

For over 10 years Dr. Adenwalla has provided free cleft surgery to about 13,000 patients at the Charles Pinto Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate he heads. Thousands of children suffer from un-repaired clefts in developing countries. Most cannot eat or speak properly. "Incidence of such cases is more among children from Muslim families in central and north Kerala possibly because of consanguineous marriages in the community," Dr. Adenwalla says.

His work is being supported by Simavi, Rotary International and Smile Train. One of the senior-most surgeons in Kerala, he has trained countless juniors, including those sponsored by the British Association of Maxillo-Faxial Surgeons. His colleagues admire his "surgery skills, precision, dedication and indomitable energy."

Dr. Adenwalla trained in plastic surgery under Charles Pinto and in paediatric surgery under Arthur de Sa, R.J. Katrak and Rustom Irani. "Inspired by Albert Schweitzer, I wanted to go to Africa on medical missionary work. A priest who was a family friend told me that several parts of my own country needed such service," remembers Dr. Adenwalla. He came to the Jubilee Mission Hospital in Thrissur in 1959. "Thrissur was a village then with aspirations of growing into a small town. The roads were clean and the air was pure. My wife and daughters, who wore skirts, aroused the curiosity of local residents. They thought we were Europeans," Dr. Adenwalla says.

"The facilities at Jubilee Mission were few in those days, but the spirit of service and commitment were exemplary. My wife was my `unofficial' anaesthetist many times," Dr. Adenwalla says.

After being a general surgeon for several years, he chose to concentrate on plastic surgery 10 years ago. Having observed Kerala's health sector for decades, he says that the spirit of service has declined.

Dr. Adenwalla's work echoes the spirit of the Hippocratic oath he took decades ago: "I will preserve the purity of my life and my art."

K. Santhosh

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