Today was the first day of clinic. We saw 890 patients, 72 of whom required referrals. We have many memorable stories, but we decided to highlight just a few. The top story had to be the saving of a person's life. We have a wonderful time helping people to see better. It's fantastic to bring free eye exams and free eye wear to the people of El Salvador, but in this instance one of our Doctor's was performing an Eye Health Exam when she noticed that the patient had extremely swollen bilateral nerves, which can be a sign of high intracranial pressure from a brain tumor. Without immediate treatment the patient can die. In this case, by working with the local Lions Club, the patient was taken immediately by ambulance to the local hospital. Yes, we wanted to help the patient to see, but our first priority was to save his life. We hope to learn more about the patients condition later this week.
Our second story involved an 80 year old woman. She couldn't walk anywhere and in fact was carried to the auto refract station. Every effort was made to accommodate this woman's physical condition, including stacking chairs and creating a special hood in order to scope her eyes. People should take heart; we were able to help this woman. Her life was changed forever because the people on our team were willing to take the extra effort to serve an elderly woman. She had an extremely bad prescription, and we couldn't have given her the recycled glasses without the ingenuity of a number of people. Way to go!
Finally, for the first time in 10 years I saw firsthand the benefit of distributing sunglasses to our patients. Generally, when you think of helping people to see better, you don't think of sunglasses - but in the case of little "Tommy", a seven year old boy from Usulutan, El Salvador, they mad a big difference. WE first noticed "Tommy" when he arrive at the International Clinic. He was a "pudgy" little boy with a crew cut haircut. You could immediately see that he was shy and introverted. He hid behind his school teacher and refused to even play with his other classmates. He was clearly embarrassed to be at our Clinic. Well, little "Tommy" was prescribed a pair of sunglasses. Guess what - his brand new pair of Ray Ban Aviators made all the difference in the world. His personality changed immediately. Tommy was so proud of his new sunglasses that he ran around the Clinic and showed them off to everyone. I have never see such a change in a person. He started playing with his friends, and that smile of his made us all proud. Although he technically won't see any better, his self-esteem changed forever. Little "Tommy" went from being a shy young boy to a kid with pride, especially with his new Ray Ban sunglasses. Big thanks to the people and companies donating the sunglasses. You changed a seven year old boy's whole perspective on life.
Well, that's it from your "roving reporter" from El Salvador. More "blogging" tomorrow.
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