RenaldoParadis: bio

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{{short description|Indian born American plastic surgeon}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sharad Kumar Dixit
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = 13 December 1930
| birth_place = [[Pandharpur]], [[Maharashtra]], India
| death_date = 14 November 2011
| death_place = Brooklyn
| restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| othername =
| occupation = Plastic surgeon
| yearsactive =
| known for = Social service
| spouse = divorced
| domesticpartner =
| children = 3 children
| parents =
| website =
| awards = [[Padma Shri]] [[American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery|ASAPS]] Humanitarian Award Vanguard Award [[The Week (Indian magazine)|The Week]] Man of the Year [[Indian Merchants' Chamber]] Award IMIC CHEMTECH Lifetime Achievement Award Nathan Davis International Award UNESCO-[[Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum|Hamdan]] Award Raul Wallenberg Prize Conrad Hilton Foundation Award [[Kellogg’s]] Hamnah World of Children Award Bhagini Sanskar Parishad Award NRI World-[[Merrill Lynch]] NRI of the Year Award Diwaliben Mehta Award World Congress of Cosmetic Surgery Lifetime Achievement Award
}}
'''Sharad Kumar Dixit''' was an Indian born [[Americans|American]] plastic surgeon<ref name="Word of Children Farewell">{{cite web | url=http://www.worldofchildren.org/blog/farewell-to-a-hero-dr-sharadkumar-dicksheet/ | title=Word of Children Farewell | publisher=Word of Children | date=17 November 2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> and the founder of The India Project,<ref name="World of Children award">{{cite web | url=http://www.worldofchildren.org/honoree/sharadkumar-dicksheet/ | title=World of Children award | publisher=World of Children | date=2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> a social initiative for free treatment of plastic surgery for the financially compromised people.<ref name="India Empire">{{cite web | url=http://indiaempire.com/v1/2011/may/nri_philanthropy.asp | title=India Empire | publisher=India Empire | date=2014 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref><ref name="TOI">{{cite web | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wheelchair-bound-battling-cancer-this-docs-still-a-surgeon/articleshow/7323330.cms | title=TOI | publisher=TOI | date=20 January 2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref><ref name="PSN Extra">{{cite web | url=http://www.psnextra.org/Articles/DrDicksheet.html | title=PSN Extra | publisher=PSN Extra | date=22 November 2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> A multiple nominee for [[Nobel Peace Prize]],<ref name="Flying on One Engine">{{cite AV media | url=http://weinsteinfilm.com/films/flying-on-one-engine/ | title=Flying on One Engine | publisher=Weinstein Film | people=[[Joshua Z Weinstein]], Mary Manhardt, Hemal Trivedi, Nicole Lederman, Justin Pines, Milind Date | medium=Documentary | access-date=2015-01-09 | archive-date=2017-09-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930195438/http://weinsteinfilm.com/films/flying-on-one-engine/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> he was honored by the [[Government of India]], in 2001, with the fourth highest [[Indian honours system|Indian civilian award]] of [[Padma Shri]].<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Awards | publisher=Padma Awards | date=2014 | access-date=November 11, 2014}}</ref>

==Biography==
Sharad Kumar Dixit was born in [[Pandharpur]], [[Solapur district]], in the Western Indian state of [[Maharashtra]] on 13 December 1930,<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="The Telegraph">{{cite web | url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111118/jsp/frontpage/story_14767586.jsp | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126070741/http://telegraphindia.com/1111118/jsp/frontpage/story_14767586.jsp | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 26, 2011 | title=The Telegraph | publisher=The Telegraph | date=18 November 2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> as one among the six children of a post master.<ref name="New York Times" /> His initial choice was to study science for which he enrolled at [[Nizam College]], Hyderabad,<ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad">{{cite web | url=http://www.reachouthyderabad.com/newsmaker/nm70.htm | title=Reach Out Hyderabad | publisher=Reach Out Hyderabad | date=2014 | access-date=January 9, 2015}}</ref> but discontinued the course to pursue studies in medicine at [[Nagpur]] after which he served in Indian Army for a short while. In 1959, Dixit moved to US and had higher training in [[Ophthalmology]]. However, a further change of mind saw him studying [[plastic surgery]] to secure a master's degree (MD)<ref name="World of Children award" /> and worked at Fairbanks Hospital, Alaska, [[Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan)|Mount Sinai Hospital]]<ref name="The Telegraph" /> and the [[New York Methodist Hospital]].<ref name="New York Times" />

Dixit, whom Lester Silver, the plastic surgeon at the Mount Sinai Medical Center termed as ''an ethical and moral giant,''<ref name="New York Times" /> founded The India Project in 1968<ref name="World of Children award" /> for providing plastic surgery treatment for the poor sections of the Indian society.<ref name="India Empire" /> Working half the year in the US and spending the rest of the year in India conducting free medical camps where he performed thousands of cosmetic corrective surgeries for [[Cleft lip and cleft palate|cleft lip]], [[Ptosis (eyelid)|ptosis]] and [[Strabismus|squint]].<ref name="India Empire" /> Later, he formed a trust and arranged for the continuity of his programs by bequeathing his assets<ref name="Maliniac Fellow">{{cite web | url=http://www.thepsf.org/donate/maliniac-circle/meet-the-maliniac-fellows.htm | title=Maliniac Fellow | publisher=The Plastic Surgery Foundation | date=2014 | access-date=January 9, 2015}}</ref> to the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation<ref name="Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation ">{{cite web | url=http://www.plasticsurgery.org/ | title=Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation | publisher=American Society of Plastic Surgeons | date=2014 | access-date=January 9, 2015}}</ref> of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.<ref name="India Empire" />

While his tenure at the Fairbanks Hospital, Dixit met with a car accident in 1978<ref name="PSN Extra" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /> which rendered him paralysed and confined to a wheel chair.<ref name="Word of Children Farewell" /><ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="TOI" /><ref name="New York Times" /> He also contracted cancer of the larynx<ref name="New York Times">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/12/nyregion/public-lives-a-children-s-surgeon-feels-better-than-he-looks.html | title=New York Times | date=12 December 2001 | access-date=January 8, 2015| last1=Wadler | first1=Joyce }}</ref><ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad" /> which forced him to use a voice box,<ref name="The Telegraph" /> and also suffered two heart attacks.<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="TOI" /> However, despite the disabilities, he did not stop his social service which he continued till his death. Dixit, under the project banner, carried on his free medical service for 42 years since 1968<ref name="TOI" /> collaborating with ''Bharatiya Jain Sangathan''<ref name="TOI" /> and is credited with over 65,000 surgeries personally performed,<ref name="India Empire" /> with a total of 266,000 surgeries under the project.<ref name="TOI" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /><ref name="Vimeo" /> He was also known to be quick in his surgeries, with reports crediting him with less than 30 minutes for a cleft lip surgery and lesser for squint, ptosis and dab surgeries.<ref name="The Telegraph" /><ref name="New York Times" /> It is reported that he performed 100 to 150 surgeries in a day<ref name="TOI" /> and the project, in 2003-04, is reported to have carried out 18,155 surgeries.<ref name="World of Children award" />

{{quotebox
| align = right
| width = 21em|''Since I am treated as entirely disabled in the United States, this is my way of coming back to my country and contributing to life around me. I do cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, correctional surgery that helps the poor, who would not be able to otherwise afford it. I see this as my job. This is all…,'' said Sharadkumar Dicksheet.<ref name="India Empire" />
}}

Sharad Kumar Dixit married twice but divorced and had two daughters and a son.<ref name="The Telegraph" /><ref name="New York Times" /> He died on 14 November 2011 at Brooklyn, USA.<ref name="World of Children award" /><ref name="PSN Extra" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /><ref name="Vimeo" /> His life and times have been captured in a documentary film, ''Flying on One Engine'',<ref name="Vimeo">{{cite web | url=http://vimeo.com/32189802 | title=Vimeo | publisher=Vimeo | date=2011 | access-date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> a 55 minute biopic directed by [[Joshua Z Weinstein]], which narrates Dixit's life in a dilapidated [[Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn)|Ocean Parkway]] apartment in Brooklyn and outside of it.<ref name="Flying on One Engine" />

==Awards and recognitions==
Sharad Kumar Dixit, a Maliniac Fellow of the Plastic Surgery Foundation,<ref name="PSN Extra" /> was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]]<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /> eight times, of which five nominations came in successive years.<ref name="PSN Extra" /><ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad" /> He received the ''Humanitariaon Award'' of the American Society of Aesthetical Surgery in 1997 and the Vanguard Award in 1998. The next year, he was selected as the ''Man of the Year'' by [[The Week (Indian magazine)|The Week]]. The year 2000 saw him receiving the [[Indian Merchants' Chamber]] Award and a year later, he received the Chemtech Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Medical Integration Council. The same year, the [[Government of India]] honoured him with the civilian award of [[Padma Shri]].<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="PSN Extra" /><ref name="The Telegraph" /> He was awarded Hamdan Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services in 2002 by Hamdan Medical Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet - Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences - HMA |url=http://www.hmaward.org.ae/profile.php?id=269 |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=www.hmaward.org.ae}}</ref> The [[American Medical Association]] conferred on him the Nathan Davis International Award in 2008.

A Nominee for the 2001 [[Gandhi Peace Prize]],<ref name="India Empire" /> he is also a recipient of UNESCO [[Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum]] Award,<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad" /> and a nominee for the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award.<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad" /> He received {{USD}} 100,000 as cash<ref name="New York Times" /> for the 2001 [[Kellogg’s]] Hannah Neil World of Children Award<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="PSN Extra" /><ref name="Reach Out Hyderabad" /> which was reportedly utilized for his humanitarian efforts in India.<ref name="World of Children award" /> He also received Bhagini Sanskar Parishad Award, 2001 NRI World-Merrill Lynch NRI of the Year Award,<ref name="Competition Science Vision">{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-gDAAAAMBAJ&q=Gandhi+peace+prize+dicksheet&pg=PA151 | title=Competition Science Vision | author=Pratiyogita Darpan | journal=Competition Science Vision |date=April 2002 | volume=5 | issue=50}}</ref> Diwaliben Mehta Award,<ref name="India Empire" /> and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the World Congress of Cosmetic Surgery.<ref name="India Empire" /><ref name="PSN Extra" />

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Nobel Prize]]
{{div col end}}
{{Portal|India|United States|Medicine}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite web |title=Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet - Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences - HMA |url=http://hmaward.org.ae/profile.php?id=269 |access-date=2021-09-07 |website=hmaward.org.ae}}

==External links==
* {{cite AV media | url=http://weinsteinfilm.com/films/flying-on-one-engine/ | title=Flying on One Engine | publisher=Weinstein Film | people=[[Joshua Z Weinstein]], Mary Manhardt, Hemal Trivedi, Nicole Lederman, Justin Pines, Milind Date | medium=Documentary | access-date=2015-01-09 | archive-date=2017-09-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930195438/http://weinsteinfilm.com/films/flying-on-one-engine/ | url-status=dead }}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Medicine}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dicksheet, Sharad Kumar}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in medicine]]
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Solapur district]]
[[Category:American people of Marathi descent]]
[[Category:American plastic surgeons]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian surgeons]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian philanthropists]]
[[Category:20th-century American surgeons]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Marathi people]]

Sharad Kumar Dixit - Revision history

RenaldoParadis: bio