Simple Surgery to restore Sight to Ethiopians

Esayas Gensa is just one of several nurses in Ethiopia trained by Orbis. He works at Shantu Health Centre in southern Ethiopia. He diagnoses and treats patients with blinding trachoma. The treatment consists of a minor surgery to correct the defected eyelids caused by trachoma. Esayas has performed many successful surgeries and helped many patients. If untreated those patients would slowly and painfully go blind.

Among those whose sight has been saved by Esayas is an 8 year old girl, Abaynesh. It is very uncommon to find a patient with blinding trachoma as young as Abaynesh. Blinding trachoma in children under the age of 15 is an indicator of the severity of trachoma in this community.

According to her father, who brought her to the Shantu Health Centre, Abaynesh is one of six children and she is currently in third grade at school. Only three of the six children attend school. The source of income for the family is farming which does not provide enough for the family to send all six children to school.

Before she began to have problems with her eyes, Abaynesh was a cheerful child who did well at school. However, about six months ago she started to complain of pain in her eyes, a foreign body sensation with redness and tearing of her right eye. She started to struggle in class.

After recognising the seriousness of his daughter’s eye problem, her father brought her to the Health Centre. Esayas diagnosed her as having TT (the blinding stage of the trachomainfection) in her right eye. She needed immediate surgery.

A week later she returned to see Esayas. Her vision had improved and she was no longer in pain.

Her father was delighted, "I am very glad of her improvement. Thanks to Esayas, this Health Centre and Orbis who made the eye care service available where there was none before. My child has got her sight back again and now she is able to play with her friends  and attend class in comfort without eye problem”.