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Born in October 1955 Dr. Paresh M. Desai studied in Mumbai and passed his S.S.C. in March 1972 with distinction. He passed his First Year Science in 1973 and had the honour of standing First in his college for which he was awarded Shri Vishnu Paranjape prize. He passed the most difficult I.I.T. entrance exam in the same year with good grades, but he wanted to serve the poor people, so he opted to become a doctor. He did his M.B.B.S. in 1978 and passed with First Class. During his internship he was selected as one of the Best Intern Prize for his hard work. He became an Orthopaedic Surgeon by passing his M.S. in 1984.

He started his private practice in suburb of Mumbai and his hospital was established in the year of 1989. He is doing all major operations of the Bone and the Joints with extreme care. He does all major operations at his hospital for fractures, dislocations, Spine operations, Cervical spine operations, Arthroscopy, Joint replacements, External fixators, Ilizarov’s technique, Hand surgery for congenital deformities and Poliomyelitis.


He has served the unfortunate victims of Lathur Earthquake rendering medical help. He started doing the FREE Polio operation camps since last 10 year and until now done more than 30,000 operations. He has taken this humanitarian task of helping the poor Polio affected victims as a mission of his life and does these camps whenever a call of a camp comes. He believes that this service is like offering a prayer to God. He feels that service to the humanity is the highest form of service to God.


He has been awarded numerous Vocational excellence awards and this year he has been chosen as Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club. He has written a scientific paper in W.H.O. sponsored conference in Tunisia, in 1998, named ‘Role of camp surgeries for Polio Crippled Children’ which was very well received.

He has mastered the art Polio surgeries and he can do 125 to 150 operations in one day. He does all these surgeries scientifically and always gets good to excellent results. His work has been appreciated by the Media. His work was written in Telegraph Magazine of London by Travel writer John Hatt. He has traveled to remote villages for doing such camps.

Info on Polio and the work in Mumbai
Through vigorous co-ordinated efforts of the Government of India, Rotary International and Unicef and various other organizations a widely publicised Pulse Polio Immunization programme where almost the whole of our country was overed since last 4 years; the incidence of the occurrence of the Polio is bound to come down and this dreaded paralytic polio may be wiped out of this country. But there are millions of children who have been affected by Polio and are suffering from paralysis and deformities due to Poliomyelitis.

Over the past decades, Polio has left many people crippled and confined within the four walls of their houses. Given a chance and a helping hand these victims could join the mainstream of the Nation and become self-sufficient citizens. The author has written a concept paper for W.H.O. Conference on Polio in November 1998 where the statement was made that “Simple surgical interventions may have a great impact on 70% to 80% of the physically impaired of the country.”


The Government hospitals are overworked, overcrowded, understaffed and are far off. Estimated to be 80 lacks Polio victims, India is having the highest number of Polio victims, roughly about 60% of word’s Polio population. Every year many more cases are added to thus miserable plight due to endemic spread. The drain to the economy is in the tune of 9000 crores every year. This indeed is a large sum which puts a heavy strain on the up coming economy of our country. In the new Delhi declaration, published by the government of India in 1983, it is estimated that in India “Intervention in camps and base hospital could restore movements to 10 million physically handicapped people” 70 lacks of whom have lower limb impairments resulting from Polio.




The author has been doing these mass camps all over India with various organizations since last 10 years and had operated more than 30,000 polio victims and made an effort to make their life worthwhile. The author has founded a charitable trust named Dr. Desai’s Bombay Foundation for Polio & Disabled.

The author is also doing FREE Polio operations in his private hospital with various voluntary organizations for the past 4 years. The patients are operated, followed up regularly and given callipers. Also limb lengthening by Iiizarov’s technique are done at his private hospital.