EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/387844
EW NEWS & OPINION 12 October 2014 "Within a day of watching patients and the Moran team, it became apparent the story of re- storing sight took center stage," Dr. MacDonald said. "Reporters, photo- graphers, and Senator staffers were smiling with joy, witnessing these moments of vision being restored. The burden of blindness and the ability to restore vision became a uniting focus for all." Moran Eye Center has organized outreach eye camps all over the world, but it was Sen. Paul's interest that brought them to Guatemala. The Moran team will continue to travel to Guatemala over the next 5 years to create a long-term, sustainable eyecare program for Baja Verapaz, similar to programs they have started elsewhere. Julie Crandall, one of the trip's coordinators and Dr. Crandall's wife, said this trip brought together all as- pects of Moran's outreach program. "It put us in the position to form some great and important alliances," she said. "It's going to be a beautiful long-term experience for us—even though the Senator won't be joining us." Dr. Chang said the extensive media coverage of the event "hopefully helped to raise public "Rand was a superb member of the team," Dr. MacDonald said. "He pitched in performing cata- ract surgery, peribulbar blocks, and postoperative exams. He kept the OR moving, doing what was asked of him or what he saw needed to be done." "As is typical in developing countries, these were the most difficult and intimidating cataract cases that one would ever want to encounter," Dr. Chang said. "This is not the best environment for a relatively 'inactive' ophthalmologist to work in, and there was certainly a lot of pressure with the press filming and taping his every move. It took a lot of fortitude for him to operate in that situation." The big picture Sen. Paul performed 20 operations over the course of 3 days, sitting down in between surgeries to give interviews with the media outlets that joined the trip, including the Washington Post and NBC's Meet the Press. Although they were there to report on the Senator and the politi- cal angles, the media could not help but be wowed by the sight-restoring operations, Dr. Chang said. Sen. Rand Paul continued from page 3 Making a difference D avid Chang, MD, on a story from the outreach trip with Sen. Rand Paul, MD, to Salamá, Guatemala: "On our first morning in the OR, we ere doing phaco on every one of the eyes until I encountered a mature white/brunescent lens with gross phacodonesis upon initiating the capsulotomy. Tachycardia time! I converted to an M-SICS (manual, sutureless, small incision extracapsular) procedure to get the nucleus out. Sen. Paul was observing this case, and I explained the benefits of this procedure for the developing world, where phaco equipment or training are often not available. Like most lay people, the reporters all wanted to see what a cataract looks like, and for the first time that da , I had a brunescent nucleus to show some of them. "The next morning, the patient had a perfectly clear cornea and was seeing great. The press was interested in talking to him specifically becaus they had seen what his dense nucleus looked like the day before. They learned that he was 44 years old and had been completely blind from bilateral mature cataracts for more than 3 years. He was formerly a truck driver. Now very emaciated, he took out his driver's license photo to show the reporters how much bigger and stronger he had been before going blind. Because of his total blindness, his wife of 17 years had left him and taken their children. He took out a wallet photo of her to show the reporters and started crying upon seeing her face again for the first time in more than 3 ye rs, remarking that he still loved her. "It was one of many human stories that impressed the reporters with the tragedy of untreated cataract blindness in the developing world." EW Sen. Paul examines patients at the hospital in Guatemala. Source: David Chang, MD