Patient: Prabhu Partha Sarthy

Thirty-two-year-old Prabhu Partha Sarthy is a very Indian example of not giving up where others might.

When he was just a teenager, he was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease – a degenerative illness which kills nerve cells that control all movement, from which there is no reprieve.  

As the effects of the disease grew worse, Prabhu was paralysed below the waist. His world was reduced to a single, second-storey room above his parents’ flat in Bangalore – a situation that would break most people. In the early years of the disease he unsuccessfully attempted to kill himself.

To make matters worse, Prabhu’s eyesight also began to fail. As a result, he lost his job at a call centre, which had helped him support his family.

Help came in the form of his eye surgeon, Dr Himanshu Matalia, who arranged to give Prabhu a cornea transplant in his left eye, at no cost, at Narayana. The doctor has now also become his mentor.

When we first met Prabhu in 2012, he had said that in two years, he would be completely paralysed. But when we returned, we discovered his remarkable story of resilience.

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