Life Expectancy For Someone Who Becomes Blind In Nepal Is Less Than Three Years
Since the launch of the London Vision Clinic in 2002, there has been a vast amount of research, technology and surgical skills development. This type of expertise was not available in Nepal, until now. Professor Dan Reinstein, has founded the London Vision Clinic Foundation and created a programme to allow for the transfer of skills and training of selected staff at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Nepal. This programme, which has already begun, will soon enable the Tilganga Eye Centre to be the first provider of Laser Eye Surgery treatments in Nepal.
In this post, you’ll hear the challenges faced by some of the most disadvantaged people in Nepal, and how mobile eye surgery can prolong people’s lives in the Himalaya.
About The Himalaya And Why Mobile Eye Surgery Is Needed
The Himalaya is the highest mountain range on Earth. The world’s tallest hundred mountains are all here. And within these peaks live 70 million people, many at altitudes that pose a threat to the human body. In the Doramba region of Nepal, the residents face an insidious threat. Dangerously high levels of harmful UV rays pierce the thin mountain air and burn people’s eyes.
And here, in the village of Balau, 65-year-old Tatini has paid a heavy price. She’s blind.
Tatini is determined not to let blindness interfere with her life, but simple tasks such as fetching water now take longer and can be treacherous.
Her blindness is caused by cataracts, a fogging of her lenses exacerbated by the intense mountain sun. But isolated here in the Himalaya, Tatini has no access to medical treatment.
Dr Sanduk Ruit brings with his mobile eye surgery clinic hope to thousands.
Fortunately, an answer to her prayers may be just around the corner. From Kathmandu, Dr Sanduk Ruit, has pioneered a method of eye surgery that he brings to the remote corners of the Himalaya. His mobile clinic brings hope to thousands.
For more information, please contact foundation@londonvisionclinic.org
After 3 years Blind – Tatini Can See After Her Mobile Eye Surgery
And today Tatini is setting off to join them. She has arranged for the only transportation available to her in these mountains. A friend has offered to carry her ten kilometres to the Doramba clinic.
While Dr Ruit’s success rate is high, there is still a strong chance that Tatini’s eyes are too far gone to be saved. He makes no promises.
Doramba’s schoolhouse is now an improvised operating theatre. It takes Dr Ruit just half an hour to remove Tatini’s fogged lenses. He then replaces them with a synthetic lens he manufactures himself. In the west, this operation could cost eight thousand dollars. But funded by charity, Dr Ruit doesn’t charge his patients a single rupee. With surgery now complete, Tatini can only wait.
Just 24 hours after her operation, Tatini joins hundreds of patients waiting to have their bandages removed, hopefully with her sight restored.
For Tatini, this is the moment of truth.
For the first time in three years, Tatini can see.
In the Himalayan foothills, modern medicine is helping prolong the life’s of the people who live here.
For more information, please contact foundation@londonvisionclinic.org
