2012 Night for Sight Info

Who: The Moran Eye Center International Division.
What: A reception/silent auction, dinner, and a fun and spirited live auction.
When:Saturday, March 24, 2012. 5:30 p.m.
Where: Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort.
Why:Because there are still more than 20 million people who suffer from unnecessary blindness.

Night for Sight - Saving Lives

Welcome to the Night for Sight information website. We appreciate your understanding and concern for the 20 million people in the world who are unnecessarily blind due to untreated cataracts.

The promising message here is that 90 percent of cataract blindness occurring in developing regions of the world can be treated with a five- to ten-minute surgery. Cataracts are a clouding of the eye's lens, which causes gradual vision loss. Sadly, due to loss of productivity and forced lifestyle changes, blinding eye conditions lower the life expectancy in developing regions of the world by one third.

You can be part of the drive to end unnecessary blindness by supporting a program that has lasted for more than 30 years. Moran Eye Center ophthalmologists have performed sight-restoring surgical missions for three decades, curing blindness for people in areas of the world where eye care is virtually nonexistent. The result is more than a "gift of sight"⎯ it is a "gift of life." Regarding the lack of common cataract surgery in underserved countries, Dr. Geoff Tabin, Moran International Division Director, says this:

"In economically challenged regions, blindness is a death sentence. Until now, people in those areas thought that as you grow old, your hair turns white, your eyes turn white, and you die."

In the United States and other modern countries, we are lucky. Our hair turns white, our eyes develop a speck of white clouding (a cataract), and then we get cataract surgery, avoiding advanced cataract-causing blindness. The annual Night for Sight event generates the core funding for Moran's humanitarian medical missions to the poorest of the poor in our world.

Restoring Sight to Those who are Unnecessarily Blind

Just last year, Moran Eye Center ophthalmologists donated their precious time (which they could have used for a comfortable vacation) carrying out charitable missions in 18 countries on 5 continents. Doctors helped restore sight to the blind in Tanzania, Ghana, Nepal, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Bhutan, China, the Philippines, El Salvador, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, South Sudan, Indonesia and Kenya.

2012 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sanduk Ruit

This year's Night for Sight keynote speaker is Dr. Sanduk Ruit, a Nepalese ophthalmologist and adjunct professor at the Moran Eye Center, University of Utah. Dr. Ruit pioneered the process of sutureless small-incision cataract surgery (SICS), which includes low-cost, high-quality replacement lenses, for people living in remote and underserved regions of the world.

It is now estimated that more than 4 million of the world's 20 million people with cataract blindness have already had their sight restored through Dr. Ruit's pioneering SCIS surgery and low-cost lenses. In many of these areas, though he humbly rejects the title, Dr. Ruit is referred to as the "God of Sight." His pioneering procedure is nicknamed a "Ruitectomy."

An ethnic Sherpa who grew up poor in a remote mountain village of Nepal on the border near Tibet, Dr. Ruit's world-changing five- to ten-minute surgical technique allows cataracts to be removed safely through two small incisions⎯without stitches⎯and to be replaced by a tiny artificial lens. In 1995, he devised an international standard intraocular lens (IOL) that could be produced for far less than those manufactured in developed countries. The cost of US-produced $100 IOLs now have been reduced to $5. The "Ruitectomy" has spread from Nepal to developing countries worldwide for the last two decades. Thousands of doctors around the world in developing areas have since been trained and are training others in this procedure.

Dr. Ruit alone has restored sight to 100,000 cataract victims over his 30-year career. For instance, he and a team from Tilganga performed the first modern cataract surgery in North Korea in 1995, restoring sight to nearly 1,000 people while training and equipping the country's first microsurgeons.

A Very Special Evening

Attendees at previous Night for Sight events have enthusiastically endorsed it as one of the most inspirational and moving fundraisers they've ever attended. At the event, you will be inspired by poignant presentations and stories of hope and care. You can also bid on fantastic donated items, adventures, and unique items of support such as packages of 10-100 artificial lenses, 5-50 eye surgeries, a donor-named remote eye camp, a mission with our doctors to a remote village, and more.

A Lasting Legacy through Education

The Moran Eye Center has been performing the "Ruitectomy" during medical missions since its development two decades ago. Proceeds from Night for Sight also help cure blindness through education in three ways:

  • TRAINING COUNTRY-AREA DOCTORS. Night for Sight helps educate indigenous doctors and health care workers to solve and prevent vision loss long after Moran's ophthalmology surgeons leave.
  • INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIPS. Night for Sight gives Moran residents and doctors a chance to serve in areas of need and to learn from Dr. Ruit. A well-rounded education, which includes serving those in greatest need, helps create well-rounded eye care specialists who are better prepared to serve our local communities.
  • INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERSHIPS. Last year, the Moran Center International Division was able to bring more than a dozen international doctors to Moran for surgical observation and training. This year's group included doctors from Ghana, India, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Egypt, Columbia, El Salvador, and more. Moran International "graduates" will return to their countries prepared to further the work of curing unnecessary blindness where they live.