“One day, a fellow student thought the glasses were just for fashion, they tussled over the glasses and the eye was affected
At just eight weeks old, that journey led him to a hospital in the ancient city of Kano, where after observing him, the doctors said he had missed the window for the surgery, which needed to have been performed at three weeks, his elder brother, Chibueze Azodoh narrated.
Eventually, by the time he was 12 weeks old, his parents took him back to the hospital in Kano and this time, he had the surgery and the cataract was removed.
“When he came back, he was alright. He was using sun glasses then,” his brother, Chibueze, recounted. “One day, a fellow student thought the glasses were just for fashion, they tussled over the glasses and the eye was affected.”
“Chizarom continued bleeding and shedding tears after the incident so our parents took him back to Kano where we were told that the lens had shifted and had to be removed,” he said.
But sadly, even after the lens were removed, Chizarom’s eyes continued to turn white and deteriorate by the day. The situation was not helped by the fact that the doctor that had performed the initial surgery had returned to his native India and there was no one competent enough to perform the treatment.
It was devastating news for the family who thought their son would remain blind for the rest of his life. But they kept searching, hopeful for help for their child.
“We continued searching for a hospital where the correction could be effected when my younger brother’s friend said there is a hospital he knows in Kaduna.
“By the time we got to Thelish Eye Centre in Kaduna, we thought the eye is beyond redemption because it had become so white.
“Luckily, after conducting a test on the retina, they confirmed that the retina is good and he could have a cornea transplant. The doctor wanted to operate the two eyes, but my father said we should operate on the eye that is worse before the other.”
After the surgery, Chizarom can now see and his family is elated.
There are many cases like his. Salami Pa Patrick, 60, had his eye damaged by a quack doctor in Kaduna.
“I just discovered that I could not see properly, so I told my son who said he knows one doctor and that we should go there.
“I asked my son how effective is the doctor? We eventually went there; the man said he can operate on my eyes. I did not see the instruments he used; he just started punching my eyes. The man turned out to be a traditional doctor,” he said, recounting how he lost his sight completely.
“I thank God that I was able to come to this hospital on time because I have regained my sight fully now and I want to thank the doctors for conducting the surgery which could have cost me N650,000 free as I could not afford to pay for the surgery,” he said.
Cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night. This may result in trouble driving, reading, or recognizing things or people. Cataracts cause half of all cases of blindness and 33% of visual impairment worldwide.
Treatment for the ailment has often required patients be taken abroad. That is what Thelish Eye Centre, Kaduna, jointly managed by Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Institute, an IndianBased hospital, is trying to change.
The Director of the center, Dr. Ime Etuk, said in the six years since their establishment, the centre has provided opportunities for Nigerians to stay in country and receive medical treatment for which they would have travelled abroad in the past.
In its ranks, the hospital boasts of having the youngest surgeon to have carried out corneal transplant in the whole of Africa. At 27, Dr. Smith M. Bavariya successfully conducted the transplant on a nine-month-old baby.
Bavariya said the baby’s surgery, was a major breakthrough and the first in Nigeria and in Africa adding, “The baby was brought by the parents from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, having suffered from measles which later developed into corneal opacity.”
His reasons for coming to Nigeria at such a young age are simple.
“I am the only surgeon who has been doing the transplant throughout Africa, especially that small baby and before now, patients were sent to India for the transplant,” Bavariya said.
Explaining what the corneal transplant is, he said, “The cornea is the protective outer layer of the eye. If it is damaged by disease, infection or an injury, the resulting scars can affect vision. Corneal disease refers to many