China and Tibet Trip Reports

Summer 2004

“I can see the world. It is very clear—see the blue sky!” These were the words of Sun Li Ke when his eye patch was removed following cataract surgery. At age 83, Mr. Sun still works to support himself and his wife in Hualong county, China and lives, he says, “from hand to mouth,” an endeavor made very difficult by the cataracts that led him to near blindness. Mr. Sun had been completely blind in his left eye and had only poor vision in his right eye before undergoing cataract surgery. The morning following surgery in his left eye, he could see clearly once more.

Mr. Sun is only one of over 700 patients who received sight-restoring surgery during the Tilganga/Himalayan Cataract Project’s summer 2004 trip to the formerly Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai Province. The traveling camp of physicians, technicians, and surgery equipment visited two cities during the trip to Qinghai, first the small town of Hualong and then the region’s major city, Xining. The population in these areas is comprised of a mixture of Han Chinese, Muslims, and Tibetans. Especially in the more rural setting of Hualong, the team was met by hundreds of impoverished Tibetan and Muslim farmers waiting for their chance to see a doctor. When the team arrived at Hualong’s small hospital early on the first morning of their stay, they were greeted by expectant patients, excited hospital staff, and town officials bearing gifts of Tibetan prayer scarves. Patients, such as 80 year-old Khamo, a Tibetan woman who had been blind in both eyes for over seven years, traveled three days through the hills on the back of diesel tractors in order to arrive at the camp. Most were accompanied by one or more relatives, all of whom squeezed in and around the hospital’s main courtyard and dark hospital corridors, trying to be certain that their loved-ones were examined. Dorge Tsedan, an 85 year-old farmer who lives a two day tractor ride from Hualong, was carried in and around the hospital and finally onto the operating table, on the back of his son, Lijya Dorge. For two years before surgery, Dorge had only been able to distinguish between night and day, and the morning after surgery, he could see the world again.

In addition to performing hundreds of surgeries, Dr. Ruit and Dr. Tabin worked on the training of three local doctors, Dr. Wang, Dr. Yagi, and Dr. Wei. Dr. Wang and Dr. Yagi came to the program with less formal ophthalmic training than Dr. Wei, but this is the second cataract camp that the pair has participated in, and all three doctors are now very competent cataract practitioners. Beyond surgery and training, the visit to Qinghai also included numerous meetings between Dr. Ruit, Dr. Tabin and officials from the local handicap organizations and the Tibet Research Center to plan for the development of an eye hospital in Xining. The construction of such a center, ideally operating through a cost-recovery model similar to that of Tilganga, would be a significant step in making lasting changes to the way eye care is delivered to this developing region of China. Land for the construction of an eye hospital has already been identified by local partners, and officials in Xining are excited to see the project move forward, however, before the land can be purchased and construction begun, more work must be done to find dedicated local doctors who are willing to take on the program.