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 26 - Inaugurating a Corneal Transplant Service in Western Nepal.
The western two-thirds of Nepal did not have a corneal transplant service. The nearest corneal transplant surgeon was more than 14 hours away by car or bus in Kathmandu.
Working with Seva Foundation and Dr. Bidya Pant, I successfully established what has continued to be a viable corneal transplant service.
As a UCSF fellowship-trained corneal surgeon and the Founder and Medical Director of the Eye Bank of Sonoma, I felt well-prepared to help establish this needed service.
Corneal transplants are an expensive procedure due in part to the absolute cost of certifying the donor’s tissues as non-infections.
At the Eye Bank of Sonoma, we would spend hundreds of dollars just in the laboratory to test the deceased donor’s blood for infectious conditions that could be transmitted to the patient.
In Nepal, most patients with corneal scarring stay blind rather than travel long distances for an uncertain outcome that requires close follow-up. Therefore, a local Eye Bank was very welcome in western Nepal. This picture shows my wife, Kevin, and me on the newspaper's front page. This was a medical development heralded in the region.
My son, my wife, Jack Blanks, co-founder of BBH Eye Foundation, and I were able to bring in two dozen viable California corneas. The donated corneas, when kept cold, last up to a week.
