Lenmed gives gift of sight to elderly

'We experience the world through our sight'

The medical team responsible for the pro bono cataract surgeries and a patient who will soon be able to see properly through his eyes again.

Lenmed (Randfontein Private Hospital) recently gave back the gift of sight to seven elderly people for Cataract Awareness Week.

Cataract Awareness Week was brought about as part of Vision 20/20, a global avoidable blindness initiative of which the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is part of.

Dr. Laila Raman-Abdulla, the doctor who performed the free surgeries spoke to the Herald about the project.

What’s great about this initiative is that it is involves so many different sectors. You have private, public and non-profit organisations working together to chip large chunks away at this issue,” Raman-Abdulla said.

She explains that everyone eventually gets cataracts when they get older. “In your eye you have a lens and as you get older your lens ages and the proteins in your eye matures and that results in our lens becoming opacified. As a result, light does not enter your eye and you cannot focus light,” she said.

Raman-Abdulla also encourages those who suspect having cataracts to go to hospitals to have it looked at.

Even public hospitals, people always think the waiting list at public hospitals are so long and you have to wait months before getting an appointment but you would be surprised. The people we’re doing surgery on today went to Leratong and were pleasantly surprised to have their surgeries done so quickly.”

She said the oldest patient she worked on to get rid of cataracts was 101-year-old.

“At that age there’s not much lucidity but she could walk around, it just makes such a big difference in someone’s life. I mean, we experience the world through our sight.”

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