A hyena pack descended upon a remote Tanzanian village in the middle of the night.
Among the victims in the rare and terrifying attack: a 10-year-old girl, asleep in her bed. She survived the trauma but was left scarred and unable to see out of one eye.
When her family learned doctors with the John A. Moran Eye Center’s Global Outreach Division would be holding a clinic at Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma, they didn’t hesitate to make an eight-hour journey for the chance to help their child regain her vision. They were met by Moran Eye Center oculoplastic surgeon and Tanzania outreach team member H. Joon Kim, MD.
“When I first met her, she was so shy, she didn’t say a word, and she didn’t smile,” says Kim of her patient. “On surgery day, I could see her beautiful personality, and she was so happy. She was undoubtedly excited about having her injuries repaired. She was playing hide and seek with me, and I actually got her to smile.”
During the first of several surgeries needed to repair the girl’s eye socket, Kim successfully restored some vision in the damaged eye by repairing her eyelid and giving her the ability to open her eye again. The surgery and nine others marked the first time the Global Outreach Division has provided oculoplastic care and the first oculoplastic surgeries to take place in Dodoma, Africa.
“We are happy to begin providing oculoplastic care and training in an area where there is so much need for it,” explains Global Outreach Division Medical Director Craig Chaya, MD. “Some children or adults needed this type of care due to a congenital condition, like a drooping eyelid that impacts vision. Others suffer injuries to the eye related to everyday life and survival in their communities.”
Funded solely by generous donors, the Global Outreach Division works to expand access to eye care in low-resource countries like Tanzania, where there is statistically less than one ophthalmologist for every million people. The Division provides training to local doctors and nurses and critically needed eye care for those who would otherwise go without.
On this two-week trip to Tanzania in March, the outreach team performed 393 vision screenings and 150 sight-restoring cataract and other surgeries while training local doctors.
Kim says she looks forward to continuing to provide outreach care that should fully reconstruct the girl’s eye socket and restore her vision. She also performed surgery on two babies born with ptosis, or a drooping eyelid, which impacts vision.
