PETEN, GUATEMALA_ Dr. Marc Myers returned to Central America to render eye care to impoverished villagers. This has become an annual event for Myers and thirty other local eye doctors.
Nearly 2000 patients from the remote towns of Los Cruses and Palestinia were examined and treated. This included scheduling over 100 cataract surgeries. Cataract blindness is a major cause of visual loss in many third world countries.
Wills Eye Surgical Network and several local industries donated much needed medications and supplies to this humanitarian effort.
Dr. Myers and the other volunteer physicians required an array of immunizations and other prophylactic medications before entering these remote regions. Despite the beauty of this environment considerable health hazards threaten visitors as well as the general population.
“This year”, Dr. Myers explained, “I brought hundreds of spectacles donated by our LASIK patients. I don’t know who was happier; the LASIK patients contributing their old glasses or the villagers receiving them. I am glad Advanced Laser Vision allowed me to continue my participation in this rewarding event.”
Dr. Lewis, Medical Director of Advanced Laser Vision said, “In our effort to continually refine our patient’s medical and surgical experience we can easily forget that some don’t have the basics. It doesn’t take much to pass good will along.”
Wills Eye of North East Philadelphia, a member of the Wills Eye Surgical Network, provided eye drops and surgical equipment for this cause. “Unopened eye drops which have recently expired have no value in this country but can save sight abroad”, Lewis continued.
The conditions in Guatemala are severe. The volunteers had to work in clinics without many of the technology and materials American doctors expect. Nevertheless, at the end of the week most of the villagers had their eye conditions treated. They were thrilled to be wearing “new glasses” and seeing their world more clearly.