Peddler of joy: Doctor cycles to help charity

Bengaluru: He is a neurosurgeon and a cycling buff to boot. Taking his passion for the pedal to a different level, Dr Arvind Bhateja uses his hobby to raise funds to conduct free spine surgeries for needy patients.

“Before any cycling tour, we raise awareness about spinal surgeries and appeal to the people to donate money for the cause,” says Dr Bhateja, who has been cycling enthusiast for the last five years.

This year, he oversaw the fund-raising programme at the 900-km ‘Tour of Nilgiris’ programme which is the country’s biggest cycling event. The 900 km cycling event, spanning eight days, went through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“Spinal diseases are a debilitating burden on the most productive demography of our population – the breadwinners of many a family. These conditions often mean, at the very least, a long interruption in the working life of a person at the peak of a career. With the burgeoning numbers of patients suffering from these conditions, public institutions are struggling to treat them quickly and effectively.

Add to this the fact that surgical treatment is prohibitively expensive and the delays compound the damage and slow down recovery of patients,” says Dr Bhateja, who conducted 20 free spinal surgeries by raising Rs 3 lakh last year.

“Our Free Spine Surgery Programme is aimed at alleviating the pain of needy patients and taking some of the pressure off public healthcare systems in the process. We perform spine surgeries of the highest complexity completely free of cost. I and other surgeons operate for free, all charges on the hospitalisation and treatment are waived, and contributions received by our charity go towards meeting costs of consumables, medicines and implants,” he says.

“This year our target was Rs 10 lakh, but we have raised Rs 11 lakh. We are planning to conduct 53 surgeries,” he says. The free surgeries include hospital charges and professional fees and medicines and implants and consumables. “We waive the hospital charges and professional fees and for the implants and other equipments we get the cost subsidised for these patients,” he explains.