The true sight to behold
A group of heroes assisted Sinoxola to avoid blindness, writes
ASCHOOL manager, a Grahamstown optometrist, an East London ophthalmologist, and an American philanthropist have pooled their expertise, resources and care to save a Grahamstown teenager’s eyesight.
Sinoxola Hala, 17, was – up until a year ago – a happy-go-lucky teenager with a passion for reading.
The Grade 11 Ntsika High School pupil first knew something was amiss in August last year when her right eye felt strange. Until then, she said she had been a normal and active teenager.
Alarmed, she took a taxi from a spaza shop near her school to local independent school Kingswood College where her grandmother Rita Samntu works as a cleaner.
Samntu immediately took Sinoxolo to Kingswood contract manager Sue Dowdle. Dowdle knew it was serious. She rushed Sinoxola to local optometrist Dr Trevor Davies.
Davies says it was clear from the 5mm white scar across her right eye that the cornea had perforated.
Sinoxola was diagnosed with keratoconus, a degenerative disorder of the eye causing the corneas of the eyes to thin and change shape. The first signs of keratoconus often manifest in puberty.
Sinoxolo was referred to the eye clinic at Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth for treatment.
“I took her there a couple of times but we unfortunately appeared to be losing the battle,” says Dowdle.
Sinoxolo was, by now, completely blind in her right eye. The other eye, affected by the same condition, was also weakening.
Davies asked East London ophthalmologist Dr Andrew Boliter for assistance.
A visit to Boliter’s East London eye clinic brought more bad news. The cornea of her left eye – the “good” eye – was already too thin to perform laser surgery. Even worse, the only way to restore sight in the right eye would be a cornea transplant.
Boliter told Dowdle that if she could source a cornea he would provide the surgery at no charge.
The race was on. But cornea donors in South Africa are few and far between. Patients can wait up to four years for a cornea to become available locally. A cornea transplant can potentially restore eyesight to thousands blinded by accident or disease. It has a 90% success rate. The Eyebank Foundation of South Africa estimates that over 5 000 people are needlessly going blind due to lack of available corneas. The foundation’s chairman Richard Charton has described the situation in the country as a crisis.
Those who can afford it, import a cornea from abroad.
“I did not think Trevor could pull this one out of the bag,” said Dowdle.
But, a trip up the Kariega River in a boat that ran out of fuel proved to be a turning point for Sinoxolo. Davies says one of the men with him on that abortive trip was an American, Robert Austin who heads the corneal bank in Denver.
After hearing about Sinoxolo’s plight, he offered to donate a cornea for free.
A cornea from the United States usually costs in the vicinity of R30 000 before the cost of transport is added. The organisational nightmare of importing human tissue was left to Boliter’s personal assistant Belinda Diemer.