Published on May 21, 2018
by Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : Dr Sarbeswar Sahariah , Padmashri Award recipient eminent surgeon of Assam and the Vice Chairman of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hyderabad has been conferred with this year’s Times Healthcare Achievers award . The award instituted by the world renowned media group The Times of India for the outstanding contribution in the specialized field of medical sciences has recognized Dr Sahariah as the “ Legend of the year,2018 in Renal Transplantation” by the prestigious national level media group the Times of India . This announcement has been made by the organizers in a glittering function held in the campus of hotel Novotel , Hyderabad on Sunday evening . On being contact over phone from the ‘APN’ to know his reaction Dr Sahariah , the true son of Assam’s Mangaldai town said, “ I came to know about the honour only on Sunday evening as I am presently on my visit to my birth State . In my absence my daughter formally received the award. I consider the recognition by the Times of India group which was first introduced five years back as very meaningful and encouraging for my career in the field of Medical Science .” It may be mentioned here that born on Ist April 1945 in Mangaldai to Mukta Ram Saharia and Bhadreswari Saharia , Dr Sahariah has the dubious distinction of giving new lives to more than 3500 Kidney patients by successfully conducting surgery . Dr. Sahariah performed the first successful renal transplant operation in the state of Andhra Pradesh in May, 1981 and since then has performed more than 3500 such operations which is perhaps the largest by a single surgeon in the country. He was also associated with the first successful renal transplantation at PGI, Chandigarh in 1973. He has single handedly developed the specialty of Organ Transplantation in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Assam during last 37 years.
Dr. Sahariah has performed the first ten successful Renal Transplant Operation in the state of Assam (Dibrugarh & Guwahati) during 1992-1995. He started the Renal Transplant Programme in year 2005 at Guwahati Medical College. He has also initiated the renal transplant programme at Down Town Hospital, Guwahati (2001) and International Hospital, Guwahati in 2010. Apart from Andhra Pradesh and Assam Dr Saharia has initiated the Renal Transplant Programme in many important places across the country The list of success of Dr Sahariah is never ending and it is not easy to cover all his success and achievements in one go. However notable among those include performing the first Cadaver Renal Transplantation in the state of Andhra Pradesh and has performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy in the country. The Government of India conferred him with the country’s third highest civilian award the ‘Padmashri’ in recognition of his untiring service to the modern medical science . Presently Dr Sahariah has engaged himself in the nation wide voluntary campaign for ‘Cadaver organ donation’ to save more than one lakh patients who die every year for lack of organs . He launched this silent movement with the help of his voluntary organization “North East Care and Foundation” from his birth place Mangaldai in November , 2016 in cooperation with local non profit organization Crystal Vision .