In the 1980s, brain surgery in India meant opening up the skull. Big scars. High risk. Long recovery. The tools for minimally invasive surgery were expensive and imported. Most hospitals didn’t even dream of getting them.
But one man in Chennai decided he wasn’t going to wait.
Dr Mani Veeraraghavan was a neurosurgeon at VHS Hospital. Smart. Focused. Not the kind to complain about the lack of resources. Instead, he teamed up with an unlikely partner — a local auto parts maker named Rajiv Choudhry.
Together, they designed and built something unheard of at the time — a working brain endoscope. Not bought. Not imported. Homemade.
They called it a ventriculoscope. It was built to navigate the brain’s fluid-filled ventricles without opening the skull. No large cuts. Just a small hole, a camera, and steady hands.
In 1986, Dr Veeraraghavan used it for the first time. He treated a patient with hydrocephalus — a condition where fluid builds up inside the brain. He removed the blockage. The patient recovered. No major incision. No long hospital stay.
It was the first ventriculoscopy in all of Southeast Asia. And it was done with a tool built in a garage.
That one surgery changed things. He went on to build a dedicated neuroendoscopy unit. His homemade instrument is now displayed in a glass case at the hospital. A reminder that in medicine, ideas and determination matter more than fancy tools.
Dr Veeraraghavan didn’t wait for the future of neurosurgery to arrive.
He made it happen.