The ‘miracle’ of seeing again
By
Fernando
Ravsberg
From
BBC World Read Spanish Version
HAVANA
— "Of the 37 million blind people in the world, half could see
again if they are operated of cataracts" with a swift and
inexpensive surgical intervention.
The
assessment is made by Cuban Dr. Marcelino Ríos, director of the
Pando Ferrer Ophthalmological Hospital, birthplace of "Operation
Miracle," a project promoted by the governments of Cuba and
Venezuela that has returned eyesight to 1.5 million people.
Although
everything began in this place, where as many as 500 operations are
done in a single day, the initiative has extended to 61 other eye
clinics donated by Cuba to 20 Latin American and African countries.
The centers are staffed by Cuban surgeons.
The
operations are free and aim to benefit those people who don’t have
enough money to pay for the price charged by eye surgeons in their
countries.
The
number of diseases that are treated is long. The most common is
cataracts, but operations are also performed for glaucoma, diabetic
retinopathy, trachoma and onchocercosis.
Ten
minutes is enough
Public
Health authorities allowed the foreign press to enter the hospital,
even into the operating rooms, where dozens of patients are treated
at enormous speed. To restore the sight of a person afflicted by
cataracts takes only 10 minutes.
The
teams are formed by four persons: an assistant and a scrub nurse help
the surgeon, who shares the surgical microscope with another surgeon,
an observer. They work all day and leave the O.R. only to eat.
Dr.
Luis Curbelo, one of the surgeons we met at the Pando Ferrer center,
told BBC World that he normally performs eight to ten operations a
day, "but there have been days when I’ve done 50." In most
cases, successfully, he added.
"From
a medical and human point of view, this seems to me to be an
excellent project.
Thousands
of people have regained vision thanks to it. I have operated people
from more than 10 Latin American countries," Curbelo said,
before returning to the O.R.
Shapes
and colors
Clemente
Romero had just been operated of cataracts when he talked to BBC
World.
"The
operation is very quick and was a success. The only bad thing is a
mild pain in my eye and the fact that I had to fast this morning,"
the old man said.
Romero’s
story is repeated with every person we interview at the Pando Ferrer
hospital, whether they are Cubans, Salvadorans, Jamaicans or
Haitians. Like Clemente, they can’t believe that they are once again
perceiving shapes and colors.
The
medical center will triple its capacity with a new O.R. where several
patients will be operated on simultaneously, the hospital director
tells us. The institution has 34 surgical microscopes.
"Everything
in Operation Miracle is paid by this poor country," Ríos told
BBC World. The costs are high. "One surgical microscope costs
75,000 euros and some essential units, available in Europe, cost
125,000 euros."
"Although
we do not purchase anything in the United States, the economic
embargo has affected us. In Germany, [the lens manufacturer] Zeiss
had to change the camera in a unit because it was made by Kodak, and
Kodak was not allowed to sell it to Cuba," the hospital director
said.
Fernando
Ravsberg is the BBC’s correspondent in Cuba.
