At a time when the view of Indian doctors in Britain is blinkered because of the abortive Glasgow airport bombing, Dr Hector Chawla, FRCS, FRCO, born in pre-Partition Sialkot, is held in high regard. Thirty-eight years back, Chawla, an opthalmic surgeon, used his skill to save the eyesight of an unknown teenager called Gordon Brown.

The British Prime Minister was only 17 years old when a retinal detachment caused by a rugby injury led to loss of sight in his left eye. Despite a series of operations, he was left totally blind in that eye and was also in danger of losing his second eye when he was referred to Chawla, then a senior consultant eye surgeon at an Edinburgh hospital.

“He faced total blindness and he knew it. He’s not stupid, he’s not without imagination, and he knew what had happened to his first eye,” recalls Chawla, now approaching 70.

Luckily for Brown, Chawla was a leader in his field and a brilliant surgeon with an outstanding record of success. “When he was playing, his head received shock waves caused by a football or a boot. The retina of one eye got detached. He had three operations which failed. He is blind in that eye. A few months later, he started to get similar symptoms in the other eye. I did one operation, it worked and he has perfect vision in that one eye,” says Chawla.

Thirty-eight years later, Brown has kept his sight. The doctor remains in touch with his patient. “I have been in touch and e-mailed him, but he’s so busy now. I have his personal e-mail, and a colleague of mine in Edinburgh is a friend of his, so that’s how we contact each other. I sent him a letter after he became PM,” he says.

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