An Indian doctor who doesn't mind working overtime

Nishant Radke poses for a photo in his office at the C-MER Dennis Lam Eye Hospital in Futian District. Photos by Debra Li

Any visitor to the 10-square-meter consultation room of Nishant Radke at the C-MER Dennis Lam Eye Hospital in Futian District would be impressed by the two walls covered with banners showing thankful words from his patients. 

Among them is a banner gifted by 10-year-old Yu Jingwen and her parents. The child, diagnosed with a closed funnel retinal detachment six years ago, nearly lost her eyesight and had been turned down by many other surgeons.

"More than 90% of such surgeries don’t lead to obvious improvement, which is why few would like to take the risk," Radke told the Shenzhen Daily on Monday.

Nishant Radke poses for a photo in front of a wall covered with banners displaying thankful words from his patients in his office. 

He was willing to take that risk because "vision is of paramount importance to a person," and fortunately for the girl, the eight-hour operation was successful. "She now wears a pair of glasses and attends regular school, returning for a follow-up check only once a year," the doctor said with a gleaming smile.

Hailing from Raipur in east-central India, Radke wanted to become an ophthalmologist at the age of 7 when his father was diagnosed with central serous chorioretinopathy in 1987. His father underwent laser surgery then and has followed up with another laser surgery and several injections.

"Without good vision, life could become very challenging. I still remember thinking ‘if only I could help my dad relieve his pains,' and have harbored the dream of becoming an eye doctor since," Radke said.

According to Radke, the most important quality required of an eye doctor, or any doctor, is empathy for their patients.

"You have to be able to feel their pain and understand their wrath and frustration caused by the illness. You need to treat them as if they were your own family," he said.

That's why he doesn’t mind working overtime.

Nishant Radke poses a photo in front of a piece of Chinese calligraphy work gifted by a patient.

"Some emergencies cannot wait. An earlier surgery will lead to a much better outcome for the patient. In other cases, some have traveled a long way to Shenzhen to seek my help, and a longer stay in the city means extra expenses on boarding and lodging," Radke explained.

"Some younger doctors would prefer to finish a day’s work on time. I can understand that. But personally, I don’t mind working longer hours."

Not coming from a well-to-do family himself, Radke sympathizes with his patients from similar backgrounds. When a patient from Northwest China’s Gansu Province sought his help, he arranged for surgery in the evening so that the patient and his family could return to their normal life sooner.

He took out a loan to pay for his tuition and aspired to become "a good doctor that lives up to the hopes of my parents."

While working with Dr. Lingam Gopal at the Sankara Nethralaya eye hospital in India’s Chennai, Radke was recommended to work for the Shenzhen hospital, whose founder Dennis Lam was a good friend of Gopal.

"Those banners on my walls are not just recognition for me, but for the professional and efficient team that I work with as well," he said. "There are many good surgeons out there, but it takes the teamwork of warm receptionists, patient and professional nurses, and meticulous and precise optometrists to make the patient feel they are respected and well taken care of."

Radke also includes research in his busy schedule. "Doing surgeries becomes the easier part after you have performed thousands of them," he said, adding that he keeps himself updated on the latest techniques and medicines and analyzes surgical data to come up with better solutions.

After eight years with C-MER, Radke now sees Shenzhen as his home. "The city is very organized, the air is clean, the greenery is nice, public transport is convenient and the education provided by local schools is of high quality," he said.

His elder daughter, an 11th-grader, also aspires to be a doctor, the proud father revealed.