Rare surgery to restore Jain Acharya's eyesight

Acharya Yashovijaysuri

PITTSBURGH: Acharya Yashovijaysuri, a Jain Guru, will now have his eye sight restored after he underwent a six hours surgery at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH: Acharya Yashovijaysuri, a Jain Guru, will now have his eye sight restored after he underwent a six hours surgery at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. neurosurgeons removed a golf ball-sized tumor from deep in his brain last week, by pulling it through his nose.
"I'm very, very pleased," said Yashovijaysuri, 63, of Gujarat. "My eyesight has progressed more than expected." Since age 11, Yashovijaysuri has devoted himself to the Jain religion practicing  nonviolence, open-mindedness and a lack of materialism. Several years ago, he lost sight in his left eye.
He was beginning to lose vision in his right eye when Jain follower Dr. Dinesh Mehta, a retired oncologist in Antwerp, Belgium, persuaded him to get a brain scan, which showed a growing, noncancerous tumor pushing on his optic nerve. Doctors in India opened his skull but couldn't remove the tumor because it was deep, fibrous and fed by blood vessels.
Mehta consulted medical colleagues who suggested a technique pioneered by UPMC neurosurgeon Dr. Amin Kassam. It allows surgeons to reach and remove a tumor through a patient's nostril and sinus cavity, using tiny knives, clamps and cameras. Mehta and fellow Jain follower Shrikant Parikh of Houston researched the surgery. The pointer was Pittsburgh hospital
One problem: Yashovijaysuri had never traveled by a method other than foot because he cannot clear the path before him of insects or micro-organisms if he rides by car, bicycle, train, plane or boat. Mehta and Parikh urged Yashovijaysuri's thousands of followers to persuade Acharya Ji to fly to Pittsburgh for surgery. The Jain community raised money for the trip and operation.
With assistance from Kassam and Dr. Paul Gardner, co-director of UPMC's Center for Skull Base Surgery, Dr. Daniel Prevedello removed Yashovijaysuri's tumor. Color-blind before the operation, he can now see in a range of hues. He is expected to regain his vision fully. 
Yashovijaysuri is determined to atone for its perceived violation of religious tenets of non violence even to smallest bacteria in the light of his plane trip and car ride. He will be undertaking a fast.