Sylvia Thompson hears how two Irish specialists are contributingto a flying eye hospital
'He said, 'I can see your watch. I can see your face,' and a smile lit up his own face as he started to laugh. He was jubilant. He went around shaking everyone's hand."
Rhona Duggan, an ophthalmologist from Annaghdown, in Co Galway, is describing the reaction of Juma Twaha, a 25-year-old Ethiopian, to getting his sight back after an operation to remove dense white cataracts from his eyes.
Twaha is one of millions of Africans and Asians whose sight has been restored by teams of voluntary ophthalmic specialists working for Orbis, a sight-saving charity. Duggan has been working with its flying eye hospital for two years. "I worked in a hospital in Kenya during my training, which made me interested in doing non-profit work once I was qualified," she says.
The flying hospital is a former Continental Airlines DC-10 that now has an operating theatre, sub-sterile area, recovery room and conference centre. Having contacted local hospitals, it flies into major airports for a week, screening and selecting patients for treatment, then operating on them.
As training locals is at the core of Orbis's work, a window between the aircraft's conference room and operating theatre allows them to watch surgery in progress. Operations are also shown on a giant screen in an audio-visual suite where the first-class seats once were.
"The plane is a very powerful tool, as it captures people's imaginations," says Duggan. "There is great excitement when we arrive, and we get policy-makers to visit the plane to encourage them to make legislative changes to allow for the collection of corneas for transplantation and the establishment of eye banks.
"When we visited Ethiopia in March the President visited the plane and signed a petition to support Vision 2020, which is a worldwide campaign to eliminate preventable blindness by 2020," says Duggan, who is off to Cuba this week to set up a programme there next year.
She has been on flying-eye-hospital programmes to countries such as Trinidad, China, Mongolia, Bangladesh and India. "It's very intensive, tiring work. Most people only continue working as part of the team for two years, but it is gratifying to see so many people and places."
Eighty per cent of the world's blindness is avoidable. A cure is often simple and inexpensive, but the world's poorest countries may have only one ophthalmologist for every million people. "Cataracts account for half of the world's blindness, followed by trachoma, which is caused by an infection of the eyelids. Corneal blindness is another big problem for children; it is caused by vitamin A deficiency," says Duggan.
Michelle Carmody, an ophthalmic nurse from Cappawhite, in Co Tipperary, took a break from her job in the eye unit at Midwestern Regional Hospital, in Limerick, last year to work with Orbis. "If you work in the ophthalmology field you are destined to hear about the work of Orbis, as it has the world's only flying eye hospital," says Carmody, who has been on programmes to Bangladesh, India, China and Ethiopia.
"It is quite an eye-opening experience when you see the levels of poverty, the deficiencies in education, financial resources and the inadequate health services. It's an uphill struggle, but we are playing our part - and we leave behind a legacy of knowledge and skills."
Like Rhona Duggan, she finds the most gratifying part of the job is seeing the joy in the recovery room.
"Watching those who had cataracts removed is most rewarding, because the recovery is immediate. In Ethiopia earlier this year there were two neighbouring children who were in recovery together, and it was amazing to watch them touching each other's faces, smiling and laughing that they could see each other clearly again."
• For more details about Orbis call 00-44- 20-76087260. See also www.ukorbis.org and www.v2020.org
• Medical Matters returns next week