Dr SS Badrinath Dies At 83: 5 Points On Sankara Nethralaya Founder

Dr Badrinath was born on February 24, 1940, in Triplicane, Chennai. According to the official site, he completed his medicine at Madras Medical College. He pursued his post-graduate studies in Ophthalmology at Grassland Hospital, New York University post-graduate medical school and Brooklyn Eye and Ear Infirmary between 1963 and 1968. 

It was in the US Dr Badrinath met Dr Vasanthi. A year later, he started work at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston under Dr Charles L Schepens until 1970 and almost simultaneously passed the examination for the Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and the American Board Examination in Ophthalmology.

In 1970, the doctor moved to India with his family. He worked at the Voluntary Health Services, Adyar as a consultant, for a period of six years. He then set up his private practice in ophthalmology and vitreoretinal surgery at the H.M. Hospital (1970 to 1972) and Vijaya Hospital, Chennai (1973 to 1978).

In 1978, Dr Badrinath founded the Medical Research Foundation of which Sankara Nethralaya is the hospital unit, a registered society, and a charitable non-profit ophthalmic organization. Over the next 24 years, he and his colleagues offered quality eye care at affordable cost, besides teaching and training ophthalmologists and paramedical personnel to create an army for combating blindness in India and continued to search for sustainable indigenous solutions for eye care problems through research.

For his charitable works throughout the years, Dr SS Badrinath received the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri award from the Government of India, which is the third and fourth highest civilian honour in the country, respectively.