Some eye clinic updates

Recently our internet has been very slow, so unfortunately I've not succeeded at uploading any pictures this time - perhaps in a followup posting!

Anyway, here are a few highlights....

The ophthalmology resident who is training with me, Elisee, has done his first couple of trabeculectomy surgeries!  This surgery is to help treat glaucoma, related to an elevated pressure inside the eye that causes irreversible blindness if not caught in time.  This is a huge problem in Gabon, so it is good to see Elisee begin this surgery.  He is doing great and is now performing some cataract surgeries unsupervised too (though I am always available if he has questions).

The wife of the president of Gabon came to visit Bongolo hospital last week!  Her tour was unfortunately rushed and she was only in the eye clinic for about 2 minutes, but I got to shake her hand and she saw the hospital.

I had a middle-aged lady come to the eye clinic about 6-8 weeks ago with a very large mass over her central/left forehead that displaced the eye downward and to the side.  It had been there for 18 months.  She's originally from far away, and we sent her to the capital city to get a CT scan (a 350 mile trip), which she brought back to us for her second visit a couple of weeks later.  The CT showed that this mass had eroded through bone and was pressing on the brain....and indeed, she had her first seizure during this trip to the capital because of this.  Knowing she needed neurosurgery (brain surgery) soon or she would die, we began praying for God to make a way for her to have surgery.  God directed us to a surgeon at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, who said if we could get her there, he would operate on her right away.  So the patient began fundraising, and our eye clinic paid for some expenses, and God provided through our administrator in the capital, who visited with a government official that paid for her plane ticket!  She and her caretaker flew to Kenya last Thursday and she had her surgery yesterday.  It went well and the mass was simply an old abcess, so there is no cancer and she should have a long life.  She knows that God has provided for her throughout this time and is very thankful to him.  Please pray for her continued recovery.

Finally, a 2 year-old girl came to us about 4 weeks ago for a trauma to her left eye.  An older boy was standing at a sink with his back turned away from her, and threw a glass bottle over his shoulder.  The bottle hit her left eye and lacerated the cornea.  Elisee, with my supervision, sutured up the cornea and 2 days ago I did the followup surgery to remove the cataract and some of the sutures.  She is doing well.