When I was seven, I broke my nose in an accident. My family rushed me to the hospital where my mother worked as a retina surgeon, where, after understanding my injury, she was able to operate on me. My father was an anaesthesiologist but deemed anaesthesia to be unnecessary, and instead distracted me from the pain during the procedure. In my first encounter with surgical care in India, I was as at home as possible.
With the hindsight of 20 years, I realise my circumstances then were extraordinary. India’s Health Management Information System would classify what I underwent as a ‘minor surgery’ because it didn’t require general or spinal anaesthesia. In 2019-2020, the System, which covers most publicly owned health facilities in the country, recorded more than 14 million minor surgeries, which accounted for about a quarter of all surgeries.
