Eye surgery for poor in flying hospital

ILOILO CITY—Erna Pasol had thought she was going to be operated on to remove a cataract while flying thousands of feet in the air.

“I was hoping to wake up in the United States,” Pasol, 64, a resident of Barangay Nabitasan in Leganes town in Iloilo province, said in jest.

The surgery was indeed performed inside a refurbished DC-10 jet but the aircraft was parked on the tarmac of the Iloilo International Airport in Cabatuan town in Iloilo.

Pasol was among 74 eye patients who availed themselves of free medical and surgical services in a three-week program of  Orbis International’s Flying Eye Hospital, the world’s only ophthalmic surgical and training hospital in an aircraft.

Orbis International is a nonprofit and humanitarian organization dedicated to treat eye diseases and blindness worldwide. For the past 30 years, it has been conducting hands-on training, public health education and medical services through partnerships with health care professionals and institutions with the support of its corporate sponsors.

Training

The FedEx-sponsored program also involved hands-on training and lectures by 18 international faculty members and more than 200 doctors, nurses and technicians from Western Visayas.

The missions were conducted from Feb. 21 to March 4 at Flying Eye Hospital and Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City, and on March 5 to 9 at Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City in Negros Occidental.

Aside from the surgical room, the DC-10 jet is equipped with a 48-seat classroom, audio-visual room, recovery room and laser treatment area. The procedures were broadcast to the classroom where eye doctors from Western Visayas interacted with the surgeons.

McKenzie Price, hospital coordinator, said the Flying Hospital has a 25-member staff, including doctors, nurses, aircraft technicians and administrative personnel, coming from the United States, United Kingdom, Norway, India, China, South Africa, Peru, Australia, Mexico, Yemen, Colombia and the Philippines.

Since 1982, the facility has traveled to 82 countries. Its Iloilo-Bacolod program was the first for this year.

Self-sufficiency aim

David Johnson, hospital director, said the programs involved an evaluation of training needs of Filipino ophthalmologists to ensure that skills-sharing and -transfer would be maximized. Patients were preselected and priority was placed on complicated cases.

Dr. Joanne Barleta, one of two Filipino staff members, said the program did not involve volume surgeries because the focus was to develop self-sufficiency among communities in addressing eye diseases.

Leonardo Mercado, a staff nurse who hails from Pampanga, said surgeries that usually lasted 40 minutes took longer because of the real-time lectures and discussions with Filipino doctors.

According to Johnson, preventable eye diseases which lead to blindness in many cases are prevalent in developing countries like the Philippines. At least 80 percent of blindness can be prevented and treated with awareness and improved access to quality eye care.

Doctors from the region were also trained in handling pediatric cases and other subspecialties.

Dr. Karen Rivera-Francia, an Iloilo-based ophthalmologist, said the hands-on training sessions and lectures had broadened perspectives of the eye doctors, especially in dealing with complicated cases.

Charlie Doromal, a nurse at Western Visayas Medical Center, said working at the recovery room of the Flying Hospital had deepened his knowledge about management of eye disease cases.

The program benefited mostly poor patients and those with eye diseases requiring complicated treatment or surgeries.

Pasol said she was blind in one eye for the past three years because of cataract. “I’m, of course, happy that they were able to help me. The operation would have cost around P9,000,” she said.

Antonio Pornan, 74, a retired government official from Barotac Nuevo town in Iloilo, also had a cataract removed from his left eye. “I’m very grateful for this program,” he said.