Cataract surgery in Lumbini, Nepal

Tweet

Many of you know that my husband, Vince, has recently spent time in Lumbini, Nepal. Over the last week or so, he has been reading on Facebook about Dr Sanduk Ruit’s visit to the town. But first some backstory: Dr Ruit was born in a remote village in Eastern Nepal where the closest school was a week’s walk away. After his sister died of tuberculosis, he resolved to become a doctor. In the 80s, he met an Australian ophthalmologist called Fred Hollows, who had perfected small-incision cataract removal. Dr Fred Hollows’ ambition was always to train local people to do his work so that they could carry on helping their own people. In 1987, Ruit came to Australia and trained under Fred, who unfortunately passed away in 1994. Dr Ruit can perform cataract surgery in under five minutes. He has restored the sight of over 120,000 people across Africa and Asia using the small-incision technique. Over the past year, some 5,500 people from the Lumbini area were assessed and over the last few weeks, Ruit and his associates operated on 725 people in a very short space of time. A huge team of nursing and associated volunteers were also involved. Some years ago, I read that a donation of $25 would pay for a cataract operation that would restore a person’s sight. I was amazed that such a relatively small sum had the potential to restore a person's sight. Most years I donate to this foundation. I also love the fact that the foundation trains local people to carry on such a worthwhile endeavour. The photo shows a small plane coming in to land on a runway at Jomsom in the Himalayas, altitude 2,700 metres (9,000 feet). The pilot has to bank sharply to bring the plane down.