To restore sight to people living with eye diseases, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), in partnership with a South Korea-based NGO, Vision Care, has offered free eye cataract surgery to 200 indigent patients.
The programme, tagged, ‘Restore Sight, Share Vision,’ was sponsored by Daewoo E&C as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
According to research, a cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye, which can cause visual impairment and blindness. Cataract surgery involves the removal of the eye’s natural lens, followed by the implantation of an artificial intraocular lens. Cataracts cannot recur in an eye with an artificial lens. Hence, patients who wait for more than six-month for surgery may experience negative outcomes during the waiting period, including vision loss, reduced quality of life and an increased rate of falls.
The Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said the Vision Care team has continued to transfer their skills and technology to the hospital personnel since 2015.
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“In previous years, the Vision Care team had performed the surgery while our personnel observed. From year to year, you’ve been coming to transfer skills and technology. To ensure we have selected eligible patients for this exercise, the team have taken their time to screen all the patients available and you may like to know that they came in their hundreds. This is to prove that there is a crying need to expand this kind of service to other healthcare centres across the state.”
The Executive Director, Deawoo E&C, Yeon Seop Jung, noted that healthcare is a fundamental sector that needs effective funding and no contribution will be too much to offer.
He commended the management of LASUTH for accommodating the Vision Care team and the Daewoo team over the years.
Also Consular-General of the Korean embassy, Haeng Gu Kang, said the mission by the Vision Care team would give people who otherwise may have turned blind, a new lease of life. He noted that the sponsorships from Daewoo, backed by the Korean government, will go a long way in imparting better healthcare which is a worldwide concern.
Medical Support Team Manager of Vision Care, Yuna Kim, said her team has treated 1,766 patients and offered 740 free cataract surgeries since they came to Lagos, in 2015 except for 2020 due to COVID-19.
One of the beneficiaries, Ibrahm Yaya, who had a problem with his left eye, said he was fortunate to benefit from the medical service and urged the state government to create more awareness about free eye surgery.