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 All organs in our body are
equally important, but eyes are more important than
others because without eyesight everything is dark.
Andhra Pradesh is proud to have produced a world-renowned
ophthalmologist, Dr P. Siva Reddy, who has given
vision and shown the light to lakhs of people. He has
performed over 3 lakh cataract operations and about
300 corneal graftings, besides over 40,000 other eye
surgeries during the past four and a half decades. He
did his MBBS from Madras Medical College in
1946 and later Diploma in Ophthalmology (DO)
from the same college. He pursued his Super Speciality
in Ophthalmology (MS) from Andhra Medical College,
Visakhapatnam in 1957.
Dr Siva Reddy became the superintendent of Sarojini
Devi Eye Hospital, Hyderabad in 1961. During his
stewardship, he developed the hospital by creating facilities
for research and special clinics for specific diseases
like glaucoma, orthoptics, corneal and retinal.Dr
Reddy is the pioneer in the conduct of eye camps in
a scientific manner. Till date, Dr. Reddy has conducted
more than 500 eye camps in rural and urban areas all
over India, of them nearly 300 were during his tenure
as the chief of Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital. The credit
of setting up the first eye bank in India,with
the help of TI Kapadia Charitable Trust in 1964,
goes to Dr Reddy. He also played a key role in the establishment
of regional eye hospitals at Visakhapatnam, Warangal
and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.
 Dr Siva
Reddy got world recognition when he found a live worm
in the orbit called Gordia worm. He presented
the worm at the International Congress of Ophthalmology
at Munich in Germany. The meeting
honoured him by naming the worm as 'Gordia Reddy'.
Dr Reddy bagged the Dr BC Roy National Award twice,
and the Adenwalah Oration Gold Medal at the IOS
Conference in 1973 for his work on Cryo Therapy.
Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology conferred
him with the Jose Rizal Medal. The Government
of India honoured him with the prestigious civilian
awards Padmasri in 1970 and Padmabhushan
in 1977 for his contributions to ophthalmology. The
All-India Ophthalmologist Society honoured Dr Siva
Reddy with Life Time Achievement Award in
admiration of his ceaseless endeavours that have contributed
to the advancement of ophthalmology.
Dr P Siva Reddy, who hails from Kurnool district
of Andhra Pradesh, is very active and continues to perform
eye surgeries even today at the age of 80. At present,
he is the honorary adviser in ophthalmology to
the Government of Andhra Pradesh and also the honorary
surgeon to the President of India. He is a member
of many professional bodies.
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