Cataract Chronicles-25 years
As I celebrate my 25th year volunteering as an eye surgeon in Southeast Asia. I am delighted to share photos and stories about the vision challenges and the people and cultures of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. - Dr. Gary Barth
Chronicle 1 - Getting Started
Many have asked: How did you get started doing charity cataract trips to Southeast Asia?
Chronicle 2 - Dr. Barth's Upside-Down Start to Asia Charity Work
At age 20, I went to India for a Williams College-sponsored semester of Indian Art and Religion. During the five months, I witnessed so much blindness that I redirected my studies to medicine.
Chronicle 3 - 100 Cataract/Implant Surgeries a Day in a Classroom?
The Setting: Tikapur High School Yard, Nepal. A surgical team in four-wheel drives took a three-hour trip from the city of Dhangadhi to a high school site for a large cataract surgery camp.
Chronicle 4 - Large Cataract Eye Camps 1999
In 1999, I joined the Prasad Project as the youngest eye surgeon in a group that intended to do 300 cataract surgeries a day for four days.
Chronicle 5 - Blind Indian Woman Nearly Alone in Nepal
The setting: Geta Eye Hospital grounds in Southwest Nepal. One morning, when we were not doing surgery, I ventured forth with my camera to try to capture the lives of the hundreds of patients and family members sleeping and staying in the enclosed courtyard around the charity eye hospital.
Chronicle 6 - Emphasizing Primary Eye Care Clinics PECC & Founding the BBH Eye Foundation
Among the many innovative activities of Seva Foundation, the Board has emphasized bringing ophthalmic services to rural communities.
Chronicle 7 - Keratoconus-Induced Irregular Astigmatism. A California Corneal Transplant Tissue Donor Allowed Her to Return to School
I founded and was the Medical Director of a Corneal Transplant Eye Bank in Santa Rosa. The Medical Director of Seva Foundation Chundak Tenzing asked me to help complete the training cycle for this yet-to-be-launched corneal transplant program in Western Nepal.
