[pima.nius] PR: More than 100 eye-saving ops - and a baby!

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0904/S00017.htm

More than 100 eye-saving ops - and a baby! Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 9:31 am Press Release: Fred Hollows Foundation

More than 100 eye-saving ops - and a baby!

An emergency caesarean section was all in a day's work for Fred Hollows NZ-trained eye doctors on a surgical outreach tour to Buala in the remote Ysabel province of the Solomon Islands last week. The four-day outreach was part of a two week surgical team visit to the Solomons funded by Prime Minister John Key's arm cast auction earlier this year.

Over the two weeks the team saw over 500 outpatients and restored sight to more than 110 people. The youngest of these was a five year old who had cataracts in both eyes, the oldest a 93 year-old grand-father who had been blind for three years in both eyes.

Dr John Szetu, Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ's Pacific Eye Institute in Suva, was joined on the outreach by three Solomon Islands eye doctors, all graduates of the Pacific Eye Institute, and five local eye nurses.

With no doctor presently resident on Buala, the team was called upon to perform an emergency caesarean shortly after their arrival. Dr Mundi Qalo, who is currently completing his Masters in Medicine at the Pacific Eye Institute, noted, "It was an eventful week and typical of such outreach tours. We performed an emergency caesarean, saw almost 200 people with vision disabilities, and experienced severe flooding. I often worry what would happen if we were unable to offer these outreaches to remote communities like Buala."

Returning to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara this week, the team caught up on a backlog of complex surgeries such as cataract surgery for children, and squint surgery for children and adults. According to Dr Szetu these surgical team visits are invaluable because they not only offer critical eye services to the local population, they also provide a valuable opportunity for supervised training for Pacific Eye Institute students and graduates. "We're extremely grateful to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ and the New Zealand public for helping make these outreaches possible," Dr Szetu remarked.

The proceeds from the auction will fund a second surgical outreach to another remote island in the Solomon Islands in June.

ENDS

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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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