Hero UHDB Consultant helps save his patient’s eyesight – not once but twice!
A patient who needed separate operations on both of her eyes in the space of three months has thanked the “amazing” Royal Derby Hospital Consultant who helped save her sight.
Mr Ravi Gandhewar, Consultant Ophthalmologist, and his team twice came to the rescue of the patient after her vision started to become seriously effected in one eye and then the other one too, shortly after.
The first operation took place in December 2019, with the “petrified” patient thanking Mr Gandhewar for his professionalism and for helping to calm her down when, to her horror, macular holes and cataracts in her other eye meant that she again required surgery in March 2020 – just as the Covid-19 pandemic began.
She said: “I couldn’t believe that it could happen so quickly but Mr Gandhewar fitted me in on lockdown day. They gave me an hour’s notice to get in; otherwise the operation would not have been able to have been done. I knew it had to be done, as my eye was in a very bad way.
“Mr Gandhewar is an amazing doctor and has saved my sight twice. I give my life to him for everything he has done for me, especially under the circumstances we were under.”
Mr Gandhewar, who has worked at UHDB for 11 years and is based at both RDH’s Kings Treatment Centre and Ilkeston Community Hospital, was this week presented with this month’s Patient Hero Award, in recognition of the fantastic commitment shown to his patients.
He said: “It’s a pleasure and really nice to see that the patient took the time to nominate me for this award. It’s really appreciated but this is for the whole team, not just for me. This is a reflection of the fantastic work of my whole team and is such a pleasant surprise. It’s really reassuring to hear this kind of positive feedback and it has reenergised us all to continue what we’re doing and to do a bit more.”
Dr Kathy McLean, UHDB Chair, virtually presented Mr Gandhewar with his well-deserved ‘Making a Difference Award’ over Microsoft Teams.
She said: “It’s really heart-warming to hear that you had such a huge impact on this patient during their journey through our Trust. You’ve really made an impression there and have clearly looked after them extremely well, which I think is just fantastic.
“This kind of feedback is always even better when it’s from a patient, so you should be very proud of yourself. I hope that this award will give a boost to both you and the rest of your team because I know that it’s been a tough time and you’ve all worked so hard.”
