Sights on Health was able to have a significant effect on so many people’s lives on this past mission to Cuzco, Peru. One story that comes to mind that had all of us so touched was about a 30-year-old patient. Due to a childhood illness he was deaf and in his early teenage years he developed bilateral cataracts.  His world had become so isolated between being deaf and blind. Dr Michael Sable, SoH’s surgical director examined him and performed cataract surgery the first day we arrived to work at the Ceprece clinic in Cuzco. As he read the eye chart the first day after his surgery, there was not a dry eye in the clinic. All of the SoH team shared in his joy. On the last day of the surgical mission, Dr. Sable performed surgery on his second eye. Today, he has his sight restored to both eyes. He was once again able to read the eye chart and he is able to sign with his family again now that he is able to see. Changing the life of not just one person, but of his two young children and his wife who is also deaf.

I’ve been on five mission trips with the A Promise to Peru/Sights on Health team.

All of them have been life changing both for the patients and for myself. But I was not ready for what I witnessed in the city of Maras. The need and the ocular issues we saw were unlike anything I’ve seen here in the US or in other cities in Peru.

There were many cases of preventable blindness, some neglect, and most unfortunate a lot of trauma. But coupled with that came hope, gratitude, patience, and resilience in the part of the people.

We set up our traveling eye clinic in the Maras health post. The health post has pharmacy and the only eye drops they have are steroid eye drops! We were needed and so the people came.

This elderly lady presented with mild cataracts in both eyes that have started to impact her vision. Her chief complaint was that she was having a hard time seeing which of her family members was walking on the road up to her home. Luckily we had glasses in her prescription and we also had reading glasses for her. She was thrilled. We provided her with detailed information, in Quechua, on where to seek additional help as her vision changes. And she was also educated on the importance of annual eye exams and wearing sunglasses with UV-protection when working out in the fields.

I asked if I could take a picture with her, she said yes and she wanted to see how the photo came out and wanted to approve the final product since she was now able to see herself with her new glasses