Chennai: Orthopedic surgeon Dr L. Prakash, who was jailed for uploading obscene videos a decade and half back, is back where he is at his best – operation theatre. After being released from jail in April, which he describes as an acquittal, Dr Prakash has already done 11 surgeries, though his request for re-registration with Tamil Nadu Medical Council is still pending.
Dr Prakash says he is not feeling the professional gap as he tries out complex surgeries in operation theatre of various hospitals here. It was like getting my old toys and playing with it again. “I think the jail stay has made me more mature and calm. I have not thrown back wrong tools at my assistants at the operation theatre,” he said when asked about performing the first surgery after a gap 13 years. He was, of course, updating himself through medical journals while in jail apart from writing books and trying his hand in painting and sculpture.
How are his peers in the profession reacting to his return to the profession? “Well they are very supportive. Indian Orthopedic Association extended all its support,” Dr Prakash said. But the Tamil Nadu medical council president Dr V. S. Dorairaj notes that Dr Prakash should not practice or perform surgery until the council renews his registration. “We got his request. We are yet to process it,” he said when contacted.
To a question if Indian Medical Association had accepted him back, he says the IMA had never de-recognised him. “IMA had never de-recognised me. It was all stories by the media. I have already completed 11 surgeries after coming out of the jail,” he says. He had been doing surgeries in different hospital depending on the patients’ budgets. “Patients are queuing up to see me. I was even gifted a site www.knee replacement.in by a person who trusts my talent,” he claims.
The doctor also says he has special packages for poor patients. He has special concession package for low-income group. If patients are earning below '20,000 as monthly salary he or she can avail himself or herself of the discount, the website says but adds that the rest of the cost is taken care of by a charity trust Sai Lara Foundation.
Dr Prakash claimed that he had asked the TN council only to clarify the issue of registration. “I registered with Madhya Pradesh medical council as soon as I finished the course in Gwalior medical college in Madhya Pradesh in the year 1981. And it is still valid,” Dr Prakash said.
