Wolfson eye doctors 'bring light' to dozens of blind Africans

Doctors work as volunteers to remove cataracts from the eyes of mostly elderly patients.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
eye chart 298.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
eye chart 298.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The vision of 61 residents of the Ivory Coast has been restored by two ophthalmologists from Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Dr. Michael Paul and Dr. Alexander Weinstock took part in an "eye camp" organized by the Foreign Ministry's Mashav (Center for International Cooperation). The doctors worked as volunteers to remove cataracts from the eyes of mostly elderly patients. Cataracts, in which the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, are the major cause of blindness in Africa, and there are millions of such cases. Some of the patients had suffered irreversible damage in one eye due to traditional "treatment," in which a porcupine's quill is stuck into the diseased eye to "push it in deeper," while the Israeli physicians' surgery saved sight in the other. In some cases, they were able to save even those eyes that had been poked with quills. Many of the blind patients had been unable to work for decades. As a result of surgery, they were able to see their loved ones for the first time in years and to escape from dependence on others. "We really did bring light unto the nations," said Paul. Hospital director Dr. Yitzhak Berlovich said he was proud of the team for their important humanitarian act, "which brings honor to Israeli medicine."