Cataract Chronicles-25 years
As I celebrate my 25th year volunteering as an eye surgeon in Southeast Asia. I am delighted to share photos and stories about the vision challenges and the people and cultures of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. - Dr. Gary Barth
Chronicle 3 - 100 Cataract/Implant Surgeries a Day in a Classroom?
The Setting: Tikapur High School Yard, Nepal
A surgical team in four-wheel drives took a three-hour trip from the city of Dhangadhi to a high school site for a large cataract surgery camp. The patients had already been screened for cataracts.
One classroom became the operating room, another the testing room, another the changing room, and the school cafeteria was the sterilizing room. Portable beds and microscopes were unloaded and set up there. Over 100 cataract/implant surgeries were performed each day.
I photographed the early morning post-operative surgical rounds in the courtyard. These were taking place before another 100 cataract surgeries were started in the classroom.
The patients’ families are in the hallway windows above the courtyard. Two Geta Hospital staff members remove the white bandages in the middle of the above picture. One of the surgeons is seen in the lower third using a portable slit lamp microscope to examine the patients.
Another surgeon, our long-time Nepalese partner, Dr. Bidya Pant, is seen in the second photograph with a portable slit lamp microscope.
The last photo shows the “medical limousine driver” taking the patients back to their villages. Several ox carts were used to ferry the patients.
Because our BBH Charity is supporting Tikapur, Jack and I visited the site last year. Due to generous donor support, there is now a functioning secondary eye hospital.
It is no longer necessary to bring all the equipment to classrooms. Screening can proceed daily, and surgeries can be scheduled when dense cataracts are detected.
On my most recent trip there, Drs. Bidya and Ravi performed surgery on all who were screened that day with dense cataracts. They expected 30-40 surgeries, but 80 were needed. The surgeries were finished at 9:30 PM.