Eye Surgery!

Monday was our first day inside the Charity Eye Clinic. Everyday we usually travel to remote areas in the Kumasi area to help people that don't have access to transportation to get to the clinic. At our outreaches we dispense medication and eye glasses, but that won't fix all conditions. A lot of people still require surgery whether it be for Pterygium, Cataract, or Presbyopia.   Medication and glasses come at a small price but through funding Unite For Sight can completely subsidizes all surgeries. It helps so many people that couldn't afford an expensive surgery in the first place. A few years ago Unite For Sight was able to subsidize about 200 surgeries a month per clinic (in Ghana they are partnered with 4 Eye Clinics). However, after the Ebola outbreak (which never even entered Ghana in the first place!!) volunteers and funding dried up. Now, Unite For Sight is only able to pay for only 40 surgeries every month. It's harder too because after only a week we could get that same amount of surgery referrals, so it forces us to pick and choose people.

ANYWAYS....

Monday instead of going out to an outreach we went to the Charity Eye Clinic because it was surgery day. There were a little more than 40 surgeries scheduled. Unfortunately because of the start of Ramadan, only 4 people showed up. Even with the small number we were still able to watch Dr. Twumasi perform 2 Cataract and 2 Pterygium surgeries. Everyone else in our group had prior experience watching surgery or something similar, except me. It was very hard to watch. Dr. Twumasi put a camera right up close to the operating eye so every detail was in high definition. Maybe I felt so queasy because the eye is such a tender part of the body. Plus the person being operated on would see everything which is really weird. For the cataract surgery we watched as he cut the side of the eye take out a foggy lens and insert a clear one. And with the Pterygium surgery he scrapped off all extra growth on the eye and then stitch it back up. I didn't even know you could put stitches on an eye! As cool as it was, I think I confirmed my desire to never be a doctor-- way too intense.

Pictures:
1. Before surgery!!
2. Dr. Twumasi and our BYU group... I swear he was happy it's just no one smiles in pictures!