Caption: Nurse Maria checks a patients eye at the Sigatoka Hospital.
By TALEI TORA
The 18 BMI eye specialists’ currently conducting free treatments at the Sigatoka District Hospital have seen over 400 patients since Sunday last week.
40 cataract and 20 Pterygium operations which is a non-cancerous growth that starts in the white thin tissue (conjunctiva) of the eye are being carried out by the team.
Team coordinator Julia Boman said this is the teams 18th trip to Fiji and their 10th to Sigatoka and as of Wednesday 6 November, the team had seen 427 patients.
“We expect to see up to 675 patients before Friday”, Ms. Boman stated.
“Every day we see more and more patients so tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday we will be pushing our numbers to reach 675”, Ms. Boman continued.
The eye specialist nurse at the Sigatoka Hospital had prearranged patients within the Nadroga and Navosa region with cataracts and eye deficiencies prior to the arrival of the team.
“We try to get as many patients with cataracts in both eyes because they really need to be able to see properly to be able to walk around. We have also treated patients that we have seen before to complete their surgery, because we at least try to do half so that we give them one good eye to see with”, she continued.
“We just had a blunt trauma case where a little boy came in, his brother had hit him in the eye with a stone. However, we’ve not had many children this year which is quite interesting” she added.
“We’re staying at the Outrigger and we are so happy there. Peter Hopgood and the staff have been so kind and thoughtful towards us and we are grateful”, Ms. Boman stated.
Outrigger on the Lagoon ∙ Fiji is supporting the BMI specialists with complimentary accommodation.
Outrigger General Manager Peter Hopgood stated that supporting our local community through support of the BMI surgeons is what the vuvale at our resort are all about.
“We are absolutely thrilled that we could support the BMI team in some small way,” Mr. Hopgood added.