Seeing results of eye care donations
THE recent donation of eye care equipment to a Pietermaritzburg hospital has helped ease its backlog – and has helped save the sight of at least one little boy.
Orbis Africa, a nonprofit organisation that works to reduce preventable and treatable blindness and visual impairment on the continent, received significant funding from the Japanese embassy, which was earmarked to buy specialised eye health equipment.
The donation includes hand-held tonometers; two digital slit lamps with imaging software; a portable slit lamp; a binocular indirect ophthalmoscope; an A and B scan device; an autorefractor; a double frequency green laser photo; a streak retinoscope; as well as an MST (microsurgical technology) set.
The R1 million plus donation from the embassy enabled the organisation to buy specialist equipment that was handed over to the KwaZuluNatal Department of Health at a ceremony held at Grey’s Hospital in January.
“KwaZulu-Natal is one step closer to eliminating avoidable vision loss in children living in the province. Home to nearly a quarter of South Africa’s children under the age of 6, the province also has the highest prevalence of childhood visual impairment in the country,” said a spokesman.
One of those children is 10-year-old Blessing Sithole from Ixopo.
Blessing was injured at school in January when one of his classmates threw a pencil at him, striking his right eye.
He was taken to a clinic in the area immediately, where it was determined that he would need surgery. He was then referred to the Pietermaritzburg hospital.
He underwent his first surgical procedure at the end of January, and returned to the hospital this month for the removal of his stitches.
“He was not feeling so good, but now he’s happy. We are lucky we have good doctors and the machine helped to relieve his pain,” said his mother, 40-year-old Jouline Sithole.
Specialist ophthalmologist, Dr Ronald Spooner said the new equipment had helped them diagnose and treat as many as 60 patients.
“The equipment has helped us immensely. Some of our existing equipment is broken and we are still waiting to repair it.”
These financial constraints “severely affected” the hospital’s ability to procure equipment for the eye clinic.
“The donation of equipment has already had a significant impact on our capacity. For example, the two slit lamps with image capture have almost doubled the number of patients who can be seen, since not every doctor had his own slit lamp. This is also the first time that we can capture, archive and compare images. We now send images to the US and other countries for assistance with difficult cases,” explained Dr Carl-Heinz Kruse, head of ophthalmology at Grey’s Hospital.
Spooner said the portable slit lamps and autorefractor (used to test for prescription for glasses) made it easier to go to outlying areas and administer care. “It also makes it far easier to examine children because it is lightweight and can be brought to them, even if they are in another ward.” A MAN has been arrested in connection with a farm attack in which two people were killed at Gluckstadt near Vryheid last week.
A Task Team from the Ulundi cluster arrested a 33-year-old man who is suspected to be linked to the attack.
The suspect was arrested near Vryheid on Tuesday and a vehicle suspected to be used during a crime was recovered.
Police spokesman Major Shooz Magudulela said the suspect was to appear in the Vryheid Magistrate’s Court facing two counts of murder, attempted murder and house robbery. “The police are still working hard in tracing the outstanding suspects who were part of the gang.”
He said that at about 8.30pm on April 19, three people were in their farm house at Gluckstadt when they were attacked by a group of people.
“They were shot at and sustained serious gunshot wounds. The suspects took an undisclosed amount of cash before they fled the scene,” said Magudulela.
He said the injured victims were taken to a local hospital, but William James van Rooyen, 37, died en route.
The second victim, Lodewyk van Rooyen, 76, died in hospital later.
Two counts of murder as well as attempted murder and house robbery were opened at the Gluckstadt police station for further investigation.
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni, commended the members who were involved in arresting the suspect.
“I also encourage the community to come forward and give us information about the whereabouts of the remaining suspects,” she said.