Dr.K.C.Gharpure(M.S.,F.R.C.S.)

Born: 14th Nov.1903 Demise : 21st July ,1989

After passing his M.B.B.S. From the Grant Medical College, Dr. Gharpure did his apprenticeship under stalwarts of Surgery like Dr. Parmar and Dr. G.V.Deshmukh.He did his M.S.in 1928 and was appointed honorary surgeon at Sassoon general hospital Pune. He did his F.R.C.S. in 1934. He visited many places of surgical pilgrimage in England, Europe and the United States, Travel gave him a brand outlook on surgery as well as life. From his observations of the work of surgeons of different schools he enriched his own armamentarium surgical skills.

Dr. Gharpure had an unerring surgical judgment and a highly skilled craftsmanship to match it. In those pre-antibiotic days, strict aseptic and antiseptic rituals had to be observed in order to avoid fatal complications like peritonitis and septicemia some of the constant features of his operative technique were as follows : a generous exposure of the field of operation ; extremely gentle handling of tissues ; careful haemostasis achieved more by the use of swab pressure than by using a battery of hemostats ; and lastly elegant and meticules suturing. He always demonstrated the regional anatomy with perfect clarity whether he was doing a simple hernioplasty or a complicated cholrcystectomy. Not a single movement of his hand was ever wasted. Each step of the operative procedure was executed with fitness and effortlessness . He would operate in a cheerful , unhurried manner and at the end of operation when one looked at the wall-clock one realised that Dr. Gharpure was a fast operator.

When Dr. Gharpure started his career as a surgeon times were very different from today. Facilities which the surgeon could avail himself of were very meagre. Very often Dr. Gharpure himself would induce anesthesia and a nurse would maintain it during the conduct of the operation. He worked with a single assistance called Anthony who used to worked both as a theatre sister and as on assistant. Field of operation was some times illuminated by using a hand touch fitted or fitted with a couple of dry cell. Intravenous fluids or blood were not available. The only treatment which a patient going into shock could receive was head low position and oxygen. Surgical operations were associated with high rates of mortality. The patients who come out alive from an operation theatre were considered lucky. Dr. Gharpure with his pleasant and confident bearing would always bring hope and cheer to a patient agonizing under mortal dread of impending surgery. This fear for surgery was uprooted from the public mind by the patient work of surgeons of Gharpure`s generation. They succeeded in reducing surgical mortality and created faith in the healing power of the surgeon's knife