What a Beautiful World

1.  Despite being surrounded by suffering, pain, and poverty, I often see glimpses of a beautiful world.  It is times like these that I am ever grateful for organizations and individuals that come together to help those in need – paying no heed to the barriers that usually divide us all: religious preference, socioeconomic status, race, creed, or gender.  Midwest Eye Banks is one such organization.  In January 2014, they generously donated 20 corneas for use in Zambia; this was all facilitated by friends and colleagues, Drs. Jeff Colquhoun and Doug Buxton.  One of the eye bank technicians was able to bring over the tissues, 9 were left for use at the Zimba Eye Clinic, where Drs. Colquhoun and Buxton were conducting an eye camp, and 11 donor tissues were generously donated to Lusaka Eye Hospital.

As soon as we heard that that the eye bank technician + corneas would be in Zambia on January 29, 2014, at the crack of dawn we sent a driver the long journey down to Zimba (a 6 hour drive) to pick up the package.  We made sure he was equipped with an ice cooler with adequate ice to keep the donor tissues cold during the journey back.  The technician’s flight ended up getting a few hours delayed, so my driver never got back on the road until 5 pm, finally reaching Lusaka before midnight (just in the nick of time for the following day’s surgeries!). 

There were just so many people and so many factors involved in the whole process; I don’t think my patients will ever know how much work went into ensuring that their surgeries happened.  But receiving this gift of corneal tissues was truly like receiving a priceless jewel.  Eleven corneal tissues never looked so beautiful in my sight.  

I was forced to think, this is a beautiful world, indeed, with beautiful, selfless people and beautiful organizations who love to commit themselves to charitable work. 

It was nice to have two local ophthalmologists, Dr. DJ Kwendakwema and Dr. Edith Pola-Smith, join me to observe the surgeries and learn a few tips during the week.

All the surgeries went well during that glorious week.  However, we did encounter some hiccups.  The first was that we had purchased some trephines from an Indian company, only to find that the blades were blunt!  For the first time in my life, I could not completely punch my donor tissue through and through!  I ended up having to complete the anterior cut manually under the microscope with corneal scissors.  This made for a less than ideal result, but fortunately the surgery otherwise went successfully. 

Some of the patients we did were pediatric patients.   

We arranged for an anesthetist to join us on that day in order to put these cutie-pies to sleep.  One patient, a four-year-old male, had a bad corneal scar and cataract after a likely corneal ulcer during his early childhood. 

 

After a delicate surgery (PKP triple), he is doing well so far.  His father was ecstatic about his improved cosmetic appearance, but I was more excited about his visual potential.  This is his post op week 1 photo (just after a suture replacement in the operating theatre).

Another patient, a 9-year-old male, had experienced a progressive haziness of his corneas over the last few years, likely due to some corneal dystrophy, causing his vision to drop to counting fingers.   

 

 

Amazingly, on postop day 1, he was able to see 6/36 from his operated eye!  Below are his postop week 1 photos.

 

I continue to pray for improvement and healing on all the patients who were operated on.  And even if the perfect results are not achieved, I pray that the patients are able to have an improved quality of life than before the surgery.

2.  From February 3 - 9, 2014, a team of 12 volunteers from Korea’s Vision Care Services organization, headed by Dr. Dong Hae Kim, served at Lusaka Eye Hospital for an eye camp.  Of course, there were some headaches and difficulties at the onset of the week (upon arrival, 20 boxes were detained by customs at the airport), which delayed the start of the eye camp until Wednesday, February 5^th. One of our eye hospital staff, along with 4 Korean team members, basically camped out at the airport for a grueling total of 12 hours on Tuesday, February 4^th, trying to work out the details of clearing the boxes.  Initially, they quoted us a price of approximately $2300 to release the medical items, but after a full day of negotiations and processing, fretting and prayers, we finally got the boxes released for a mere cost of $40 for clearing and handling charges.  By Wednesday morning, the team had set up our operating room to their preference – two portable phaco machines in place, and all their consumables and disposables ready to go.   

A total of 53 cataract surgeries were performed that week (really 2 full surgical days) as part of the eye camp, and many patients were very happy with the outcome. 

 

It was such a blessing to work with this team.  They donated quite a few things – drapes and eyedrops and consumables and a small set of microinstruments.   

We hope to establish a more firm and formal relationship with this wonderful organization, and we hope to have their team back next year for another eye camp!

Friday afternoon, we had the team over at our house for lunch.  

 

And on Friday evening, we were invited for dinner to the Korean restaurant and guesthouse where they were staying.  There, this historic picture was taken of some of our Zambian ophthalmologists – Dr. Mumba Musonda (from Kitwe Central Hospital), Dr. Doula (from Vision Care Appasamy Eye Hospital), and myself – along with the two ophthalmologists from South Korea, Dr. Dong Hae Kim and Dr. Jaeyun Kim. 

Farewell, team!  Have a safe flight (they are en route to Korea as we speak)!  And hope to see you again next year!

3.  Management at Lusaka Eye Hospital decided that in 2014 we were going to institute an Employee of the Month award!  For the month of January, one of our most hard-working employees was recognized for his dedication and service to Lusaka Eye Hospital. Your hours working hard at night when everyone has gone home, your extra days working when everyone else has gone on vacation, and your loyalty to our institution have not gone unnoticed. Congratulations, Webby, our accounts clerk, for being named Employee of the Month for January 2014!  =)

4.  Meanwhile, Jaycee continues to grow and thrive.  She’s learned to use a spoon, but now she’s learning how to use chopsticks.  =)  

She’s also very fond of playing soccer (or with any ball, for that matter).  

She’s a great girl overall, but she can be quite demanding when she insists on using the iphone or ipad.  She has already learned to take selfies with the devices.  =)

I hope we can be reminded that despite some of our own personal challenges and dark moments, we can see that this world can be beautiful if we do our part in making it so.  May we reflect upon this quotation below as we take the challenge and strive to be a blessing to others.

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”  –John Wesley