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January 2013 Olongapo Lions International Foundation Vision Mission January 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 2013 were the mission dates at Brgy. Pag-Asa covered court, Olongapo, Zambales, Philippines. 1,984 Indigents received comprehensive vision examinations and eyeglasses, 60 surgeries performed to date with 40 to be done February 16, 2013 at San Marcelino Hospital, Zambales, Philippines. This mission has been on the drawing board for about 2 years. It is the hometown of our EyeCare WeCare Foundation missions coordinator, Mr. Ed Damilao. At the Awards banquet on January 11, District Governor of Lions District 301 D1, Gil Mostoles, was describing the beginning stages of the mission, that his meeting with Ed inspired him to go forward to have this mission become a Lions Medical Vision Mission. Ed was in America during this mission, I know that he would have been very pleased with the speed of the new auto tonometer. He may have been absent, but he was there in spirit. This mission, as far as the clinical procedures, was by far and away the smoothest that we have ever done. Previous missions were held up because of the hand held tonometer battery drain. The new tonometer, is operated off electricity and was very fast and very accurate. The Olongapo Lions club members were everywhere helping out with distributing the numbers to the indigents, guiding them through the 6 stations, answering questions, arranging transportation to the San Marcelino Hospital, feeding the volunteers, transporting the volunteers and housing the volunteers. The were great. We had three physicians from the USA join us for this mission accompanied by a professional photographer, his mother and his friend. They were an asset and a blessing to the indigents that we served. You will note that many of the pictures posted to the website from this mission will have the copy write notes that the pictures are courtesy of Eric Jackson. Dr's Rudy and Maria Trevino and Dr. Calinica Semense who is Maria's mother. They are all practice family medicine. This mission everyone got weighed, the doctors counseled them on high blood pressures and answering any of their health care concerns. The following pictures tell the story.
mobile clinic boarding super ferry and mobile clinic being maneuvered through the gate to the venue site. The biggest obstacle for this mission was that 7 days before the mission the transmission went out. 3 days they tried to fix it, then New Years Eve and New Years day no one could work on it. It was decided the Jan 2, 2013 they would replace the transmission, the problem was, EyeCare WeCare Foundation was out of funds and did not have the money for parts and labor to replace the transmission and if they did, could they find a transmission and could they get it in 4 days -- without the mobile clinic -- no mission. Dr. Jim made two phone calls to two faithful donors and they gave and even exceeded the amount necessary. Praise God. The money was wired to the Philippines from the USA, the mechanics found a transmission and worked night and day and it was ready about 8 hours before the it, along with the 24 volunteers was to leave by ferry boat ( a 24 hour crossing) to Manila -- it arrived on the night of the 7th and drove to Olongapo and arrived 2AM. The volunteers got 4 hours sleep and were at the venue on the Morning of the 8th ready to work at 8AM. they saw 354 the first day.
venue was ideal, covered and cool (if cool is 90 F) 400 were examined everyday. Project Coordinator Lion Cesar Santiago instructing the Negrita Delegation
People waiting to be assigned their numbers, Lions Cesar Santiago is the one determining eligibility and then assigns their number
Station 1 Registration Station 2 weigh in & blood pressures taken
Next examined and counseled by family practitioner doctors from USA
Station 3 Auto Tonometer, measuring the pressure inside the eye. This is a new instrument and it functioned very well and many glaucoma and potential glaucoma patients advised.
Station 4 Auto Refractor - we found many people with very high prescriptions that had never worn glasses before and gave them sight, both young and old.
Station 5 Pathology detection and refraction: Dr finding patient with a Pterygium, left, using a slit lamp on a patient, right T Patient with cataract, Dr. examining a patient with diabetic retinopathy
The refraction determine what prescription will be for the patients. We always hope that the dispensers will find a prescription very close to what is they need.
Station 6 dispensing eyeglasses - dispensers always busy to keep up with 400 patients per day. It takes great skill to find the correct Rx and to adjust them to their faces.
This 72 year old lady has nystagmus (her eye move from side to side very rapidly). Her eye have no functional macula (the best seeing part of the retina) so she seeks for the best vision. These people are a nightmare to refract because just when they see good their eye move and get an entirely differeint reading. Our volunteer operating the auto refractor got a reading on one eye, it was a -17 diopters (you see how thick the glasses are) This is the very first time in her life that she can remember walking without and assistance. She cried, her family cried, we all cried. Big tears of joy.
A delegation of Negritas (original Philippines natives) they still live way back in the hills and still practice their native traditional ways. They were famous and well known to servicemen who were stationed in the Philippines both at Subic Bay and Clark Air Force Base
These people from the larger cities are dressed better than to ones in the rural areas that we serve, but they are all in need of updated vision corrections and many had never had glasses before.
lady receiving her new glasses -- little boy with -6 Diopter first pair of glasses older brother had before, but way too weak, both thrilled with new glasses
Two more happy people
These identical twins were so cute, it was very unusual because one was near sighted an the other farsighted. Notice the one on the left squints to see (nearsighted) and the other has her eye opened normally.
On the very last day we handed out 400 numbers, it was hot, our volunteers were very tired and they last few people were trickling through, by the time Jobella came through the line (# 396) many of the stations had been closed behind her. Jobella is 17 years old, a beautiful young girl who is totally blind. They were able to get a blood pressure on her, no reading on her right eye for eye pressure, but her left eye was 45mmHG (normal pressure is 15 to 18) . The auto refractor No Reading either eye. When I saw her I found a very scarred right eye with a complete scar and a left eye with a total cataract. Jobella was a normal young girl and when she was 15 she was found to have a glaucoma both eyes, this poor family paid every peso they had for her to have an operation on her right eye and then things went array. She and her family was provided transportation to a Hospital in Manila and our partner, Resources for the Blind (RBI) had her seen by an expert team of ophthalmologists and it was determined that there was no surgery that would be enable her to ever seen again. RBI has a school for the blind in Olongapo and they have enrolled her in the school so she can learn Braille and proceed forward to eventually get her college degree. Even though we were unable to help her restore her eyesight, we have provided her to a path to accept her disability and accept and learn to go forward with her life.
Jobella, Cesar Saniago, Jobella's Mother, Dr. Jim Weyrich and Jobella's Father |
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