Grandma Sees
Julia was an 83 year old grandmother who had been blind from cataracts for 6 years. By the time the Sight Surgery International team met her she had despaired of ever seeing her 5 year old granddaughter, Marie.
Of course Julia was frightened of her surgery, but the caring circulating surgical nurse,, reassured her and held her hand. In fact, she never let go of Julia's hand during the entire surgery; softly whispering encouragement and soothing Julia's feelings of fear. Little by little Julia relaxed as the surgeons performed their magic.
The next day the moment of truth arrived. Julia waited nervously with her daughter and son-in law, and of course, little 5 year old Maria.
The nurse gently removed Julia's eye patch and bathed her swollen and tender eye, washing the antibiotic ointment away from yesterday's surgery. With the patch off and the gooey ointment washed away, Julia turned to her family. A smile started with her lips and suffused her entire face and she SAW MARIA FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. Laughing and sobbing, she cried "Maria, Maria you are even more beautiful than I imagined". This was the moment that we were all waiting for: Julia's prayers were answered and she could now see her precious grandbaby grow up.
Grandpa Sees For the First Time
70 year old, Marvin, had had a good life and a wonderful loving family. Then cataracts robbed him of his eyesight and he could no longer play with his grandsons, Hector and William. After an active life, Marvin fell into a depression when he couldn't help with the family chores or play hide and seek with his grandsons. It was as if his whole world was hidden from him and there was no way to find it again.
When he first heard that volunteers from Sight Surgery International were coming to his village he hardly dared hope. In his culture, when your hair turned white, your eyes also turned white and then your world was black. Could these visiting volunteer surgeons really make him see again? What kind of miracle was that?
The SSI team arrived quietly one night and set up in the local clinic's operating room. Marvin wasn't first in line, but he was pretty close.
After a quick examination, he was guided to a row of chairs outside the operating room. Nervous but excited he waited for 3 hours until his turn came. He was led into the operating room where the surgeon gave him the "block" to numb his eyes. He could feel pressure and movement around his eye but no pain. Less than an hour later the surgery was done and his eye was filled with antibiotic ointment and patched.
The next morning he waited along with the others who had had surgery the previous day. A smiling nurse took his patch off and gently washed his eye. The surgeon followed with a tiny flashlight and some questions. Pointing to an eye chart across the room, the surgeon asked which was the smallest line he could see. Marvin couldn't believe it! Not only could he see two lines from the bottom of the chart but he could see all the people in the room!
Marvin jumped out of the chair and out the door to where Hector and William were waiting. "Aha, you little rascals, you thought you could hide from me forever. Not Now Kiddos, we have 2 years of hide and seek to catch up on!
Mother Sees Her 2 Year Old for the First Time
Georgina was a 32 year old mother of five. She had slowly gone blind over the last 3 years. Life became more and more difficult for this young mom after the birth of her youngest child, Victor, now two years old. Georgina, tried to be a good mom, but it was hard for her to cook without seeing, clean without vision and could only tell where her kids were by hearing the sets of noises by which she knew individually belonged to each child.
One of the kindergarten teachers at school heard about Georgina from her second oldest daughter and called us. An eye exam by a volunteer ophthalmologist was set up and it turned out that Georgina had a progressive eye disease called kerataconus. She needed a corneal transplant!
Several weeks went by as we made the arrangements to get a donated cornea, donated hospital time, donated anesthesia and a volunteer ophthalmologist that specialized in corneal transplants. When all that was in place I drove Georgina to the hospital for her surgery.
The next day her sister brought her, along with her youngest son, Victor, to her eye doctor . As we took off the patch, Georgina looked around in amazement. She could see the doctor, nurse, office equipment and the clock. I grabbed her hand and said, "Come with me, Victor is waiting." In the waiting room Victor was wiggling in his aunt's lap. "Victor, my baby" Georgina squealed as she saw her two year old son for the first time. There was not a dry eye in the room.
Your donations provide surgical supplies and equipment to local medical professionals and volunteer medical teams throughout the world.
Your contribution towards SSI's mission of restoring sight worldwide is tax-deductible. Sight Surgery International is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The most
exciting accomplishment of SSI has been facilitating local surgeons in the
emerging world to initiate local programs for their own countrys’ indigent
blind. Working with local ophthalmology
professional associations, SSI assists with locating and then provisioning
surgical sites with surgical instrument sets, equipment and supplies, and then
mentors the process to solve problems as they arise. An example of this is a “Cataractathon” currently scheduled
for January 2010 in El Salvador, where members of the Salvadorian Ophthalmology
Association invited SSI to assist them in organizing a multiday clinic where
each member of the Association will donate a day of surgical time treating economically
disadvantaged patients blinded by cataracts. SSI will provide coordination of equipment and supplies,
including instrument sets, intraocular lenses, viscoelastics and other
disposables.
Even the most basic vision care is out of reach for most in developing countries, where there is perhaps one ophthalmologist for every 350,000 people. For the cost of dinner and a movie you can help a person see again.
ANECDOTES
The value of your contribution will be leveraged and increased by 3,000% when combined with our donated surgical supplies and volunteer professional skills. That is an outstanding ROI!
Will you please help us bring sight to the lives of our patients who are now needlessly living in darkness?
