Pioneering plastic surgeon

Died: Dr Rustom Jamshed Maneksha, 84, past president of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India who had pioneered the specialty of plastic surgery in India, on June 6, 2004 at Bombay’s Bachha Nursing Home following cardiac arrest.

The sight of young women and men with smallpox scars inspired Maneksha to design the manual metallic dermabrader in 1950 to treat these cases. The general surgeon then played a key role in establishing and heading the unit of plastic surgery at the Gokuldas Tejpal (G. T.) Hospital in Bombay in 1964 and four years thereafter he started the plastic surgery department at the Bombay Hospital. As Maneksha had acknowledged, "I am deeply grateful to Dr R. G. Talwalkar who allowed me unlimited scope at the G. T. Hospital to develop this branch of surgery.” Initially specializing in cleft lip and palate surgery, during the Indo-Pak Wars in 1965 and 1971 his services were used by the Armed Forces Hospital INHS Ashwini to treat the bulk of burns cases. In July 1980 he was honored with the title of "Surgeon Commodore” by the President of India, notes a tribute to the surgeon.

Maneksha: so patient

The enthusiastic surgeon took an active part in organiz­ing various well attended international conferences in the 1970s like the first meeting of the Asian Pacific Association of Sur­geons, the Indo-French Cosmetic Surgery Conference, the first international conference on "Surgery in the Tropics” when he invit­ed Dr Seiichi Ohmori of Japan to give the first R. D. Birla Memorial Oration on microvascular surgery. The next logical step for Maneksha was to train in Japan and on his return start micro­vascular surgery at Bombay Hospital with Dr S. R. Tambwekar. "He treated all juniors as colleagues and welcomed their opinion and discussions when planning surgery. He encouraged them to write articles based on his cases,” acknowledges one of his assistants.

Maneksha himself maintained photographic records of his cases from 1948 and authored two well illustrated books Plastic Surgery in the Tropics, 1965 and Colour Atlas of Cleft Lip Sur­gery, 1986. An internationally respected figure in the world of plastic surgery, Maneksha’s articles have featured in innumerable publications in his field of specialization.

Over the years he operated at Bachha Nursing Home, Sodha Nursing Home, Northcote Nursing Home and Cumballa Hill Hospital and his practice expanded to include cosmetic surgical cases. As vouched his patients and nursing staff, "He was always very jovial, fun-loving, good-natured, soft-spoken, cooperative, patient, punctual...very humane... always considerate of the pa­tients’ affordability and available to all economic strata.”

Born in Bombay to Goolbai and Dr Jamshed Maneksha, Rustom started his education at the Bharda New High School and therea­fter went to the Queen Mary High School in Bombay. After studying medicine at the Grant Medical College he proceeded to England where he earned his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. Subsequently he was recognized as a Fellow of the American Col­lege of Surgeons and a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons, notes his life profile. An avid reader he continued to keep abreast of new developments by interacting with eminent surgeons at international conferences. He passed on his expertise to a number of postgraduate students at G. T. Hospital and the Poddar Hospital. The demise of his wife Rhoda in 1997 after 51 years of marriage reportedly left a void in his life. His sons Farrokh and Jimmy are in the medical field too, while one is a cardio­thoracic surgeon, the other is an anesthesiologist.

Being a keen sportsman who had captained his school and college cricket teams and later taken to playing golf despite a post-trauma deformed and painful foot, Maneksha had written, "Doing plastic surgery can be compared very much to playing golf! Incidentally both bring out the best in you. On the golf course, you plan each hole in advance after due study, then start on the tee after selecting the proper club, try to avoid all the haz­ards, and if entrapped, overcome them and...reach the final goal.”

The pioneering surgeon is survived by his sons Dr Farrokh and Dr Jimmy.

P. M. G.