Two week blitz restores sight to hundreds in Papua New Guinea

Over 300 patients had cataract surgery and hundreds more received other eye care treatment during a two week blitz in a remote area of Papua New Guinea.

"People in the remote communities of West New Britain have to live with blindness and poor vision because they have no access to services," said The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ's eye nurse advisor in PNG, Ms Lindsay Dewhurst.

"Most people are unaware that their poor vision can be treated. They accept being blind as an inevitable consequence of aging."

Many of these people travelled long distances across difficult terrain in order to receive eye care services.

"One man walked for two days, travelling with a companion, stumbling along tracks and over the mountains, because he was determined to see again," said Ms Dewhurst.

"The health centres where we set up our clinics were overwhelmed with people, but thankfully local churches generously accommodated them."

Ms Dewhurst said the team was met with excitement and interest in most villages, but some villagers were too afraid to have surgery.

"In one village six men refused to have surgery, but many brave people stepped forward.  We spent time explaining the procedure to them to help them overcome their fear," said Ms Dewhurst.

"Throughout PNG there is little knowledge about sight restoring surgery and so a large part of any eye nurse's job is to let people in villages know that they don't have to live with poor vision, and that surgery can be performed safely with good outcomes."

Ms Dewhurst paid tribute to the eye team which worked tirelessly to complete over 40 operations a day, as well as testing vision and dispensing spectacles for hundreds of people.

The surgical outreach was a collaboration between The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, CBM, Catholic Health Services and government health staff.  

In October Lindsay Dewhurst and her team will return to the remote region of Bialla in West New Britain to deliver follow up essential eye care and dispense more spectacles to meet the enormous demand.