2014 | May
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Our volunteer team did 124 vision restoring cataract and pterygium surgeries.
Patience does not begin to describe these patients. Many of them lived very far from where we did the surgery and they were diagnosed back in November and expected to return again. They continue to humble me.
The spirit of this mission, like many before, was summed up in one patient who had surgery.
A 38 year old totally blind diabetic was noticed by one of the optometrists who works for Mexican social service and was seen a week before the mission. Realizing that we were completely full, the optometrist told him to come to the mission to be evaluated in the hopes of having surgery.
The day he arrived, ironically one patient did not show up who was scheduled to have surgery. Molly came back to the operating room team and asked if we could put him in that spot. One hour after he arrived in clinic he was having cataract surgery. The following day I removed his patch with some trepidation. I had a concern that maybe he would not see despite cataract surgery because the diabetes might have affected his retina. As the patch came off it became clear he saw perfectly.
In his excitement he simply asked, “Can I have the other eye done?” We did his second eye that afternoon.
This patient represents the “what if.” What if we had not seen him. What if we had been too busy. What if he had not been noticed.
He represents the face of Jesus that we aim to see in these blinded poor.
I am humbled to serve such wonderful volunteers.
Peace,
Jim Conahan
