Abstract

The authors wish to highlight through their video, the importance of simple and wise lessons, learnt by them over a period of time.
The first lesson is that thoughtfulness breeds ideas and ideas breed solutions. The authors demonstrate how their intense desire to help a blind patient with advanced diabetic retinopathy and severe kyphosis helped them come up with step by step solution to all the barriers faced, finally resulting in successful surgery.

The second lesson highlights the importance of listening and acknowledging patient’s history. An essence, which helped the authors in two rare case scenarios.

The third lesson highlights the importance of staying persistent as a VR surgeon, which does reap rewards.

Eventually the video highlights the need to normalise occasional suboptimal outcomes and failures, in the career of a Vitreo-retina surgeon, and to help patients cope with the same. It’s time we get over the concept of bravado, and bravely accept and discuss failures too.