Thousands of wretched poor eye sighted patients in Binh Dinh can see again thanks to support of the communities.
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The patient Nguyen Duc Binh is re-examined his eyes after the free cataract operation at Binh Dinh Eye Hospital. Photo
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Happiness
In the latest free surgery for patients with cataracts, the surgeons at Binh Dinh Eye Hospital found a special case – the male patient Nguyen Duc Binh from Nhon Thanh commune, An Nhon district.
He was poor and suffered vision loss because of both cataract and bomb after-effect crystalline lens disproportion. (He also lost one of his legs in the bomb blast). After a consultation, the surgeons considered this case very challenging. Yet, the operation was successful. Binh could leave the hospital as his eyes had recovered well.
However, he had to return the hospital some days later. The eyes were wounded because he accidentally struck them with his hands, producing a severe side-effect of uvetis and hyphema (anterior chamber bleeding). The patient had to spend 15 days of hospital admission before the newly operated eyes recovered again.
Many poor blind people, who seemingly resigned to their fate of blinding to the end of life, strongly hoped for vision regaining after the cataract surgeries.
The hospital had just organized re-examination at Nhon Thanh medical clinic for the beneficiary patients of the previous surgeries. Among 25 patients, 21 could see again. The poorest eyesight was 2/10 while the highest one was 9/10. Most of the rest was at least 4/10. Binh’s eyes also recovered very well after the operation. “I owned the surgeons a big debt of gratitude. Now I can see very clearly. If only my leg weren’t lost, I could do many tasks,” he said in deep emotion.
The age-related disease is really a nuisance to the patients. They had to depend on their children or grandchildren for help even though they are physically strong. To them, the free operations were chances to see again and become useful individuals.
72-year-old patient Dao Thi Phuong at Van Thuan hamlet, Nhon Thanh commune, An Nhon district is an example. “I am so happy,” she said. “2 days after my eye operation, I regained my vision and now I myself can thread a needle to sew conical hat and breed 4 pigs.”
4.1 percent of cases still suffer post-surgery side effect
The blindness has been a great concern to the health sector and communities in Vietnam where the blind people make up about 1.25 percent of the total population, 7.3 percent of Vietnamese people have visual capacity of lower than 1/10 and almost 25.6 percent has eye infection related vision problems.
The cataract is the most common cause of the blindness in Vietnam. The eye disease could cause vision degradation and even everlasting blindness if its treatment is delayed.
Most of the eye diseases which cause vision loss can be prevented if they are detected and treated soon enough or proactive eye healthcare is done.
Given the mutual assistance of the communities, Binh Dinh’s health sector has performed free cataract surgeries for thousands of the poor blind people. 90 percent of the beneficiary patients enjoy post-operation vision improvement. The complication rate in Vietnam is reported to be 4.1 percent.
Notably, 35 percent of the patients with cataract is unaware of the disease or suffer incurable conditions. Most of the patients are subjective as they think that the disease is a simple sign of old age and don’t get any eye test or treatment. Many people don’t know they have cataract. If yes, they tend to consider it incurable disease. It is hard to restore their visions as they have examination at the advanced stage of the disease.
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