Dr Dilip Gahankari’s Overseas Volunteer Work

Dr Dilip Gahankari (RACS, FRACS), who himself comes from a very humble background in India, regularly volunteers his surgical skills in less privileged countries such as East Timor, Nepal and India. Dr Gahankari regularly returns to India where he undertakes volunteer work in remote parts of central India.

Dr Gahankari has maintained strong friendships with many of his fellow medical school students, who are very involved in health related community work in remote areas. Dr Gahankari volunteers his services to people in these remote areas, often with life-changing results.

“I wanted to be an engineer, but my father said, ‘be a doctor and help people’,” said Dr Gahankari.

“Plastic surgery has a life-changing influence and it’s a joy to touch other people’s lives in this way. Undertaking volunteer work in third world or underprivileged communities makes you appreciate the little things in life that most of us take for granted.”

“I like to give something back to my friends and my area,” Dr Gahankari says.

“There are lots of plastic surgeons in India but people can’t get to them or can’t afford them. It is good work and very gratifying.”

“This aid project allows me to do what I love to do, and that is reconstructive surgery to the highest level, while also contributing to the care of patients in my home region who do not have adequate access to modern medicine,” he said.