Reports on HCP Cure Blindness

Project Report | Aug 22, 2023
Why We Help: Meet Adwoa

By Ashley Ellis | Senior Communications Manager

Cacao farming is typically carried out by small-scale producers, like 70-year-old Adwoa. As a widow, Adwoa relied on cacao farming to support her ten children for years. But five years ago, she lost her vision entirely due to cataracts.

"During my active years as a farmer, particles, and dirt kept flying into my eyes as I tended to my farm. Rubbing my eyes always relieved me until it didn't work anymore. That day, I went home complaining to my children about the pain in my eye. The pain turned into a cloudy film that appeared over my eyes, and before I knew it, my sight was gone."

Adowa’s daughter Alice, 36, has taken care of her since then. Alice's children, aged between five and three, have also been helping their grandmother get around the house. But on days when no one was at home to help, all of Adwoa’s necessities were placed within reach until someone came home to help. Asongwaa had to bear the darkness in solitude.

The Sweet Relief of Restored Sight

This past year, Adwoa’s children decided to seek medical help. Alice accompanied her on her first trip to the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital, where HCP Cureblindness supported a surgical outreach that removed the cataract from Adowa’s left eye and restored her sight.

"The first surgery was not scary because I knew everything would go well. My whole life, I have not done any surgery, so I had no expectations,” she said. “In a short time, the surgery was over. There were no complications afterward."

Then, just last month, Adwoa returned to undergo the same procedure on her right eye. Again, she and Alice sat in the waiting area of the Eye Clinic in the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital – this time accompanied by her five-year-old granddaughter Veronica. Veronica was so excited her grandmother now had "fresh eyes" that she insisted on joining to see Asongwaa’s right eye fixed as well.

After a simple ten-minute surgery, Adwoa walked out of the hospital beaming with her vision fully restored. For the first time since Veronica’s birth, Adwoa could finally see her grandchildren.

"They are healthier and much more beautiful than I imagined,” she said. “With my sight restored, I can help care for them instead of these little ones caring for me. The fact that I was helpless truly frustrated me. Thankfully, I can now babysit as my daughters go out to work. God bless the doctors."

How We Help: HCP-Donated Equipment Helps Local Doctors

HCP Cureblindness works to bring life-changing eye care to people in underserved areas of the world with continual focus on training, direct service, and long-term infrastructure. In addition to these focus areas, HCP is empowering local teams in various locations, including those without permanent infrastructure, by sending them outreach kits filled with essential equipment and instruments for eye surgeries like small incision cataract surgery (SICS). These kits profoundly impact patients' lives, as shared by Dr. Gloria Kyeremeh, an Ophthalmologist from rural Ghana.

Dr. Gloria’s story is a testament to the impact of outreach efforts and the transformational power of providing necessary medical tools to in-country teams. As an ophthalmologist serving a bustling region in Ghana known for its mining activities, Dr. Gloria was all too familiar with the devastating effects of eye injuries caused by explosions and cataracts on her patients.

Despite her expertise and determination to make a difference, Dr. Gloria faced significant challenges in providing urgently needed eye care to her patients. She lacked the necessary tools and equipment to perform surgeries and often had to refer her patients to distant facilities, which caused delays and limited access to timely care.

However, everything changed when Dr. Gloria received a Surgical Outreach Kit from HCP. As she opened the kit, she found all the essential equipment, tools, and consumables needed for performing eye surgeries, including small incision cataract surgery (SICS). Dr. Gloria was overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement as she realized the impact this would have on her patients and her community.

With the Surgical Outreach Kit in hand, Dr. Gloria could perform emergency surgeries on patients who had lost their sight due to cataracts.

Here is Dr. Gloria’s perspective, in her own words:

For the past two months, we have had the capacity to do cataract surgeries every week. We are clearing our backlog, and new patients are getting surgeries done within a week of tests. HCP's intervention has been highly impactful and is changing the lives of our patients. Gone are the days when patients stayed home with their eye problems due to the laborious task of journeying long distances on bad roads to seek medical attention.

As a surgeon, I am happy. I get to practice what I have learned daily. I am getting better at performing surgeries, managing complications, and feeling more confident because I get to do surgeries weekly. Since the hospital was established, this is the first time we have had a resident ophthalmologist. I am the only surgeon here and have been working for a year. The video recording system is an exciting piece of equipment that came with the HCP donation. I can play back surgeries and see the mistakes I made to improve. I am a very young surgeon at the beginning of my career, so this asset is life changing. I take medical emergencies very seriously; the sooner you intervene, the better. The hospital's emergency theatre has been repurposed into a dedicated eye theatre with one bed donated by HCP. With an operational and equipped eye theatre, we can provide emergency help promptly to save lives and avoid complications.

Because of your support, local doctors like Dr. Gloria are empowered to provide life-changing eye care to their patients, restoring vision and improving lives in remote and underserved areas.

Dr. Gloria with Adwoa after she successfully removed Adwoa’s cataract.

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Feb 18, 2023
Restoring Vision for 1,500 Patients in Ethiopia

By Sarah Judd | Development Director

Last month, HCP’s Ethiopian team helped local providers perform over 1,500 sight-restoring cataract surgeries at Boru Meda Hospital over the course of five days. Two of the patients speak to the empowerment they feel with their sight now restored.

The day after surgery at Boru Meda Hospital, hundreds of patients gather under a large white tent set in a rural pasture. With the chill winter winds blowing, they sit wrapped in fuzzy blankets and bold patterned scarves.

The white bandages covering their eyes stand in stark contrast to these bright colors, but with the energy in the tent you’d think you crashed a community campout – not a medical outreach.

Some patients sing to pass the time. Others beam proudly as their bandages are removed and they look their doctor in the eye for the first time. With their sight restored, elderly patients seem to shed 20 years while the younger ones exude a confidence they’ve never known.

This is just a glimpse of last December’s outreach, when the HCP team and our local partners completed 1,575 cataract surgeries at Boru Meda Hospital in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to bear witness to this transformative experience because every outreach reminds us of the true impact that a simple, 15-minute surgery can have on a community.

To give you a taste of that transformation, two patients from this outreach share their stories.

Meet Mohamed

Sixty-year-old farmer and father of four Mohamed lost his eyesight two years ago. He has only been able to move around by touch or with his children's assistance.

Mohamed could no longer work. He could no longer see the faces of the children that helped him day-to-day. And he feared he would never marry again because of the stigma against blindness in his country.

Then, one day, Mohamed's nephew brought him to Boru Meda Hospital for care. Mohamed was told that his condition was reversible: they could remove his cataracts and restore his sight. All he had to do was come back for a free surgery during the HCP Cureblindness outreach in December.

Mohamed anxiously awaited the day of his surgery, and when that day came, he made the trek to Boru Meda. Within 24 hours his bandages were off and he could see the world that had faded from his view years ago. He could see his children’s smiling faces. And he could envision finding love once again.

As he told us, "Vision is power, and I will marry again.”

Meet Alto

Alto is a 50-year-old farmer and father of 10. He lost his vision in both eyes about a year ago.

For those of us gifted with good vision, it’s easy to overlook all the things lost – all the opportunities missed – when your sight is impaired. You miss out on life’s simple pleasures, like a beautiful sunset, as well as life’s most precious moments.

Alto’s daughter, Birri, was planning to marry. It broke his heart to think that he wouldn’t be able to witness this milestone in Birri’s life. He was also frustrated and embarrassed that he wouldn’t be able to see and welcome the wedding guests.

Then Alto heard about HCP’s upcoming outreach. So, in December of 2022, Alto came to Boru Meda Hospital. After a simple, 15-minute surgery he waited eagerly for the bandages to come off. When they did the next day, Alto was overjoyed to realize his sight was truly restored.

Today, he looks forward to looking his daughter’s wedding guests in the eye, shaking their hands, and watching as his Birri smiles and dances the night away. "I am happy now to welcome the guests," he explained with a smile on his face.

Links:

Link to the HCP Cureblindness Website

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Oct 21, 2022
HCP and HKI Partnership Leads to Improved Care in Tanzania

By Kyle Martel | Communications Manager

Tanzania Outreach

HCP is partnering with Helen Keller International (HKI) this year in Tanzania. The collaboration, which pairs HKI's expertise in Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT) care and HCP's in cataract care, will ensure that local practitioners reach more patients in need through their already existent TT case finding and clinical flow.

Earlier this year, five Tanzanian eye care professionals attended an outreach in Ethiopia to work directly with staff from the HCP Ethiopia team and HCP Board Member Dr. Matt Oliva during the week-long outreach where nearly 1,200 patients had their sight restored. The team of Tanzanians have worked with HKI to treat Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT) in the Mbeya Region of their home country.

Since their time in Ethiopia, the team of Tanzanians continued to receive support and guidance from HCP from afar to pair their TT case finding with cataract screening. Processes for monthly high-volume cataract surgical outreaches were established and outreach equipment, provided by HCP, arrived in-country to begin work. With over 500 cataract cases identified, the project’s surgical schedule solidified.

HCP’s Co-Founder, Dr. Geoff Tabin, arrived in Mbeya earlier this month to support Dr. Barnabas and his team for their first high-volume cataract outreach. He was supported by two other surgeons from the US to work closely with the Tanzania team of two surgeons, two optometrists, and three ophthalmic nurses to deliver their first high-volume cataract outreach at the Mbarali District Hospital in Rujewa.

The Tanzanian team demonstrated the outreach management skills they’d mastered in Ethiopia, and over four days together, the team restored sight to nearly 300 patients. The exposure to hundreds of surgeries offered an immense opportunity for Dr. Tabin and his team to bolster the HKI team’s clinical skills and small incision cataract surgery expertise.

“My youngest child is eight years old now, and the last time I saw his face was when he was 4 years old. My other relatives and my youngest son still don’t believe that I can really see again. They are waiting to see me prove it,” said a forty-three-year-old man who received surgery in both eyes.

Another patient shared, “I can’t believe that I can see again, I had lost hope.”

At the outreach, long lasting relationships among the Tanzanian and the US teams were built, clinical skills were gained, and the teams showed the true success of the HCP-HKI Mbeya pilot: reaching those in need of care through a collaboration leveraging two organizations’ expertise. Soon, both will look to the neighboring district of Songwe to scale this approach which pairs TT and cataract care to ensure no one is left behind.