In countries like the United States and Israel, eye diseases are detected much earlier. When someone has blurred vision, he or she goes to the doctor and receives eye tests. The problem can be solved easily at this point. However, in many developing countries, like Ethiopia, individuals do not receive adequate healthcare or delay care until it is too late. Then a preventable disease, such as cataracts, results in blindness. According to Gondar (Ethiopia) Eye Surgery (GEES), a British charity promoting eye services in Northern Ethiopia, 1.6% of Ethiopia's population is blind and over 3.2% have low vision. Preventable or treatable blindness affects 70% of the blind population and 80% of the low vision population.
Earlier this year, we interviewed patients at the Gondar University Hospital's Ophthalmology Department and found out that several were from remote areas outside Gonder and had traveled long distances to come to the hospital. They had to seriously consider the opportunity cost of visiting the hospital. One man who came in with his 7-year-old daughter told us that he was an illiterate farmer from the countryside. It was difficult for him to leave his land during the harvest season. In order to make the trip to Gonder, which took 2 days, he had to sell one of his oxen. Another patient, an elderly monk, had to walk 8 hours by foot from his monastery to the closest town. From there he had to take a four to five hour bus ride to reach Gonder.
It is upsetting to see otherwise healthy children, adolescence, and adults with eye diseases. I see eye disease daily in Gonder. Walking around the city, I notice the men with filmy eyes and wooden walking staffs, the older women being guided by family members, and the younger generation wearing sunglasses. Even at my school there are a handful of blind students. Our school does not have appropriate resources to support the blind students, and these students cannot take mathematics or science courses. GEES claims that 80% of the blind cannot engage in economic activity while they require 10% of the time of a sighted person to look after them.
Last Sunday, Eye from Zion arrived in Gonder. With the support of the JDC, a mission of five Israeli opthalmologic volunteer medical professionals spent a week in Gonder and performed roughly 100 surgeries at Gondar University Hospital's Ophthalmology Department. The group is an Israeli-Jewish NGO that travels to developing countries to provide free ophthalmological treatments and surgeries. The organization has been all over the world, including China, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, and Micronesia. The Eye from Zion doctors and nurses work with the local staff, instruct them in modern medical techniques, and provide donation medicine and equipment.
Ari and I helped set up the supply room, unpacking and sorting lenses, instruments, and various materials. We created an inventory of all the supplies. Over the the three days of surgery, we manned the supply room and kept track of the materials being used. We brought materials into the operating rooms and assisted the head nurse Olga. The supply room was connected to the sterile operating rooms so we had to wear scrub gowns, scrub hats, face masks, and clogs. I looked ridiculous, but it was for a good cause after all. We had the opportunity to watch surgeries. At any one time there could be up to four surgeons operating. I avoided the operating rooms as I myself am a four-eyes and couldn't stand to watch the doctors slicing and dicing eyeballs. Ok I'm exaggerating!
One day I had to ask Olga a question so I entered an operating room. To my dismay, I somehow ended up holding part of a small machine a doctor was using to operate. I couldn't avert my eyes; I was staring directly into a patient's eye, the only part of his face that was uncovered. It was actually quite difficult, if not impossible, for my naked eye to see what the doctor was doing. Although, every time I saw a sharp instrument go near the eye, I reflexively winced. The surgeons used microscopes while performing the surgeries. Their precision and skill is remarkable! The surgeries performed restored the patients' sight and will, hopefully, give these men and women a new take on life. Medicine is truly a noble profession. It was a privilege to assist Eye from Zion, even if I was a little squeamish.
The Supply Room
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