Concept: Perform Cataract Surgeriese
Date: 04/08/2017 – 04/10/2017
Location: Mandeville Regional Hospital, Mandeville, Jamaica
Facilitators: Dr. Nitin Shah, Dr. Dhiren Buch, Horace Morgan, Dipak Patel, Sadana Patel, Kevin Roy, and Shrenik Shah.
Surgeons: Dr. Nirav Modi and Dr. Vipul Prajapati
Sponsors: Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Foundation, Tampa, Florida and MBS Health Ministry Inc., Tampa, Florida, Alcon Company
Collaborator: Anekant Community Center (ACC), Los Angeles, California
Goals:
The goal for this medical mission was to provide assistance to Mandeville Hospital’s Eye Clinic. We performed two previous surgical missions (2014 – 225 cataracts in 5 days – sponsored by Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Foundation, MBS Health Ministry, Inc., Alcon & ACC and 2015 – 227 cataracts in 3 days – sponsored by ACC, Chokshi Family, Alcon & MBS Health Ministry, Inc.) and were looking to continue our mission to help the people of Jamaica. With each mission we learn and grow with our medical team in hopes of helping more and more patients with cataract surgeries. Eye Surgeons keep performing better and better with each mission! We actually have been beating our own previous records!
Attendance:
Our volunteer team had a total of 9 people – two eye surgeons, two anesthesiologists, one 3rd year Medical Student, one nursing assistant and three additional volunteers. We partnered with Mandeville Hospital’s existing medical staff to do all the preparations for our trip as well as setting up a follow up process with each patient post surgery.
Results:
We did 257 successful Cataract Surgeries in 2.5 days! Our patients ranged from 7 years old to 92 years old.
Cost:
Out of pocket expense $ 40.72 per patient
Working with the Jamaican culture has shown us that they are full of humility and respect. Each and every patient was very thankful for the opportunity we were able to provide them. One of our exciting cases was Ian Brown. He has been unable to see for 20 years and was now for the first time able to see his grandchildren. From the first moment he was able to see them he jumped for joy, started dancing, and hugged everyone he saw on his way out. Another patient named Karen said, “I am very thankful to the lord for sending these people and he has answered my prayers.” We had one very grateful child, she was blind from birth but due to lack of expertise she could not be operated upon in Jamaica. Our team operated on the young girl’s right eye in 2015 and this time around we are proud to say we successfully operated on her other eye! She is now able to see from both eyes and will have a bright future ahead of her. Come to our surprise on the last day all the patients and their families had gotten together and sang a holy song “We are together again” in honor of their appreciation for us. This has been a humbling experience for us all and we definitely look forward to going back and going to other places as well!
