"Melody Friday"-the monthly retreat for employees was held at Aravind-Madurai and Tirunelveli on May 29. The theme for this month’s Melody Friday at Madurai was "TEAM WORK" Professional Guitar artist Mr. Babu Rajasekar along with his Son Master Joshua accompanied most of the songs on the guitars. Mr. Vijay Anand from Aurolab played a lovely song on flute. The guest artists played a melodious film song on the guitars. The other singers performed in the programme were Mr. Anshuman, Ms. Josphine Christy, Mr. Kiran Maharaj, Mr. KVS. Lakshmanan, Mr. Sanil Joseph and Ms. Hema Meenakshi. 

At Aravind-Tirunelveli the theme of the Melody Friday was "SUCCESS AND JOY". The entire programme at Tirunelveli was co-ordinated by MLOP trainees. They participated very enthusiastically and performed group dance, monoacting, singing and few of them read poems written by them. Apart from the cultural programs, Dr.R.Ramakrishnan, CMO, Aravind-Tirunelveli shared his experiences about his trip to Egypt.

The Fellows in Eye Hospital Management (2008-09 batch) is starting their six weeks externship posting in various outside eye hospitals as part of the one year long training. The externship placement is from May 25 to July 4, 2009. The permanent postings of the Fellows would be identified and finalised once they come back from the externship.

Ms. Sangeetha - Vivekananda Mission Asram Netra Niramay Niketan, Chaitanyapur, West Bengal
Mr. Damien Jacob - Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya, Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh
Mr. Abeesh - Lions NAB Eye Hospital, Miraj, Maharashtra
Mr. Satheesh - Islamia Eye Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mr. Anto Twinkle - Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital, Mastichak, Bihar
Mr. Maneesh - Lions Club of Karimnagar-Charitable Eye Hospital, Karimnagar, Andra Pradesh
Mr. Ranjith Manoharan - Bhakti Vedanta Hospital, Mumbai
Ms. Swetha Prabhu - H.V. Desai Eye Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra
Ms. Anupama - Mahatme Eye Hospital, Nagpur, Maharashtra
Ms. Sunytha - Sankar Foundation Eye Hospital, Vizag

It is quite common to see patients and their relatives who fear surgery. But here is a case where a mother's fear of anaesthesia stalled a cataract surgery on her mentally challenged daughter. This incident happened at Aravind Eye Hospital at Pondicherry.

The 28 year old Saroja and her 30 year old sister Saraswathi (real names shielded) who are both handicapped belong to Katpadi. They had bilateral cataract. Since their father had died, they are being taken care of by their mother who works as a coolie.
The two girls were taken to an eye camp conducted by Aravind Eye Hospital at Katpadi. Doctors who examined their eyes advised surgery for cataract. With the consent of their mother the patients were brought to Aravind-Pondicherry. All the preoperative tests were conducted at the hospital. Since Saroja was a mentally challenged patient, the doctor decided to operate on her under general anaesthesia. When the patient's mother was informed about doctor's decision, she became apprehensive of anaesthesia and said "No" for the operation. Nurses in the inpatient ward explained to her the anaesthesia procedure in detail and assured that there was nothing to fear about. It will do no harm to the patient. But it may create problems for her if the operation is performed without anaesthesia. Convinced by their explanation, Saroja's mother finally agreed for the operation under general anaesthesia.

The CMO of the hospital performed surgery on both the girls and later enquired about their condition after they were shifted to the ward room. On the next day when the bandage was removed, Saroja and Saraswathi were examined and found to have regained good vision.
More than the daughters their mother became very happy. They thanked the medical staff and others before leaving the hospital. Next month when the patients visited the hospital for a follow up examination, their next eye was also operated on. Now they have clear vision in both the eyes.

If the fear of anaesthesia had not been removed from the mind of the poor mother, perhaps both the handicapped girls would not have still undergone operation. This is another instance of the success of awareness creation which helps to bring to the operation theatre a number of patients who may return home without availing treatment due to fear of operation related matters.
Source: K.M. Subani, Aravind - Pondicherry
Script: K.V.S. Lakshmanan

A Guest Lecture on 'Gandhian Philosophy'was held at Aravind-Tirunelveli on May 22. Mr.Vivekanandan from Mahatma Gandhi Seva Mayyam Charitable Trust, Shencotta was invited as the chief guest of the function. Mr.Sivaramakrishnan and Prof. Ganapathy Ram of Thiruvalluvar Kazhagam spoke on the occasion.

Mr.Vivekanandan is a great philosopher and has dedicated his whole life in service to the mankind. His talk was very inspiring and interesting. Mr.Vivekanandan also distributed two books "Pathinooru Mahavirathangal" and "Paamaranukkum Baghavatgeethai" compiled by him to the audience.

Dr. P.Sundaresan visited University of Pittsburgh, and presented a Lecture on "Molecular genetics on Congenital Hereditary Endothelial Dystrophy in Indian Population" and he had discussion with Dr. Shiva Swamynathan, on the corneal eye diseases in mouse and human.

He visited centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Atlanta and gave a guest lecture on "Molecular Genetics of Inherited Eye Diseases in Indian Population" to the faculties of Human Genome Epidemiology Network and interacted for future collaboration. He attended the ARVO-2009 Annual Meet held from May 3-7 at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he presented a poster on "Novel mutations of the transcription factor FOXL2 and functional effects in BPES patients".

He attended the INDO-US collaborative research workshop and presented two projects on Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research (DRCR) Project, Identification of Biomarkers for Primary Open Angle Glaucoma.

Dr.P.Sundaresan's, research proposal on Molecular Genetics of Albinism in Indian Population was selected by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under INDO-GERMAN collaborative project with Dr. Markus Preising, University of Giessen, Germany.

Dr. P.Sundaresan visited University of Giessen and met Dr. Markus and discussed the research plans for the approved project for next two years.

The ISO certification audit was held from January 19 to 23 by UL India Ltd., Bangalore at Aurolab. The Lead Auditor Mr. Manickam and co auditor. Mr. Mahadevan conducted the audit. The audit was completed successfully. 

In this audit, Aurolab got ISO 9001:2000 & ISO 13485:2003 certificates for pharmaceutical medical devices, aspheric lens, and surgical blades.

Except surgical blades, Aurolab got CMDCAS (Canadian Medical Device Conformity Assessment System) certificate for all other products covered in ISO 13485:2003. Aurolab has listed Aurosling in FDA website. Based on this listing, Aurolab can sell this product in USA legally.