Fanny's Story Fannie
Ramos is 8 years old and lives in Limon, Honduras. While attending
the clinic in Limon, Fannie’s mother told Dr. Davin Miller,
a pediatrician with UAB, that Fannie could not see the blackboard
in school. Dr. Miller then referred Fannie to Mary Guffey, a homemaker,
from Waverly, Alabama, for a vision examination. Mary was assisted
by Pastor David Kelly, who is Associate Director of the 600 Cruzada
churches in Honduras, and served as our translator, Joe Jones, the
AHMEN (Alabama Honduras Medical Education Network) team leader from
Discovery United Methodist Church, Birmingham, AL. My contribution
(Sylvia Wiseman, member of this mission team) was taking photos
and assisting Mary and Joe in assembling the eye glasses (they can
be a bit tricky to assemble).
At the outset, Fannie’s visual acuity measured 20/200 which
means she would have to be within 20 feet to see what a person with
normal vision could see 200 feet away. Fannie was asked to look
through the FOCOMETER,
a hand held refractive device which does not require electricity.
This device was developed by InFocus (Interprofessional Fostering
of Ophthalmic Care for the Underserved Sectors (www.infocusonline.org)
) a non-profit organization headquartered in Houston Texas. Mary
and her husband, Hugh Guffey, attended an InFocus training session
in February 2006 in preparation for this mission trip. Fannie adjusted
the FOCOMETER until she could see the eye chart clearly. She did
this several times with each eye until the FOCOMETER measurements
were close. There is some margin for error, particularly if the
patient is a little nervous. Fortunately, Fannie had no astigmatism,
which could have been corrected but would have required additional
adjustments and calculations.
Mary, Joe, and I assembled a pair
of eyeglasses using an interpolation of the FOCOMETER measurements
and asked Fannie to read the eye chart again. Although Fannie’s
left eye now measured 20/40, vision through her right eye was
still blurred. Mary then refitted the eye glasses with a different
powered lens for the right eye and we asked Fannie to try on the
eye glasses again. Behold! This time Fannie was able to read all
the letters perfectly on the 20/20 line of the eye chart. David,
Joe, Mary, and I all clapped and cheered as Fannie’s face
lit up with a great big smile. This entire vision team thanks
God for giving us the ability to help this child and AHMEN for
allowing us to be part of this medical mission in Honduras.
Fannie’s
story, like a fairy tale, ended happily as did others. During
our week in Limon, Ciraboya, and Tocamacho, Honduras, we were
able to help quite a few people with reading glasses and prescription
eye wear. However, there were many, many stories which did not
end so well. Most of the patients who came to the vision clinic
could not be helped with lenses of any sort. An ophthalmologist
is needed to treat the medical eye problems and perform the necessary
surgeries. As in many developing nations, the Garifuna people
who live along the Caribbean coast of Northern Honduras lose their
vision at an early age from cataracts, retinal deterioration,
and other medical problems resulting from infections, birth abnormalities,
vitamin A deficiency, sun exposure, unvented household smoke,
and lack of professional care.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates at least 75% of
the world’s blindness could be prevented or treated. The
WHO has placed eye health among its top priorities in establishing
the Vision 20/20 Program which aims to treat all cases of preventable
blindness by the year of 2020. This will be a formidable task
as there are nearly one billion people world-wide who, because
of financial or geographic barriers, do not have access to professional
eye care.
If you would like to be a part of the solution and be blessed
beyond measure, please consider giving a few days of your time
to the wonderfully hospitable but woefully under served people
of Northern Honduras by contacting the director of AHMEN, Dr.
Tom Camp at llamacamp@hughes.net.
If you are an ophthalmologist interested in volunteering, the
clinic in Limon has a sterile surgery suite with electricity,
and the clinic in Ciraboya will soon have electricity and a surgery
suite. By this fall, AHMEN, will have a vision program in place
which will be able to pre-screen for medical and surgical needs
in preparation for your arrival.
If you are not an eye care professional but would like to help
with the ongoing vision program, you may be interested in participating
in the FOCOMETER and EYE CARE WORKSHOP sponsored by InFocus scheduled
at the North Alabama Methodist Center on the campus of Birmingham
Southern College on September 30, 2006 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. For additional information and registration contact: Rev.
Robert Mount at: r-mmount@att.net or Paulette West at pwest@northalabamaumc.org
or www.honduranmissions.com
Fannie
Ramos is 8 years old and lives in Limon, Honduras. While attending
the clinic in Limon, Fannie’s mother told Dr. Davin Miller,
a pediatrician with UAB, that Fannie could not see the blackboard
in school. Dr. Miller then referred Fannie to Mary Guffey, a homemaker,
from Waverly, Alabama, for a vision examination. Mary was assisted
by Pastor David Kelly, who is Associate Director of the 600 Cruzada
churches in Honduras, and served as our translator, Joe Jones, the
AHMEN (Alabama Honduras Medical Education Network) team leader from
Discovery United Methodist Church, Birmingham, AL. My contribution
(Sylvia Wiseman, member of this mission team) was taking photos
and assisting Mary and Joe in assembling the eye glasses (they can
be a bit tricky to assemble).
FOCOMETER,
a hand held refractive device which does not require electricity.
This device was developed by InFocus (Interprofessional Fostering
of Ophthalmic Care for the Underserved Sectors (www.infocusonline.org)
) a non-profit organization headquartered in Houston Texas. Mary
and her husband, Hugh Guffey, attended an InFocus training session
in February 2006 in preparation for this mission trip. Fannie adjusted
the FOCOMETER until she could see the eye chart clearly. She did
this several times with each eye until the FOCOMETER measurements
were close. There is some margin for error, particularly if the
patient is a little nervous. Fortunately, Fannie had no astigmatism,
which could have been corrected but would have required additional
adjustments and calculations.
Fannie’s
story, like a fairy tale, ended happily as did others. During
our week in Limon, Ciraboya, and Tocamacho, Honduras, we were
able to help quite a few people with reading glasses and prescription
eye wear. However, there were many, many stories which did not
end so well. Most of the patients who came to the vision clinic
could not be helped with lenses of any sort. An ophthalmologist
is needed to treat the medical eye problems and perform the necessary
surgeries. As in many developing nations, the Garifuna people
who live along the Caribbean coast of Northern Honduras lose their
vision at an early age from cataracts, retinal deterioration,
and other medical problems resulting from infections, birth abnormalities,
vitamin A deficiency, sun exposure, unvented household smoke,
and lack of professional care.