MHMF ORBIS Fellow 2006

Support for an ORBIS Fellow from the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund


See Dr Srivastava's report here

This year the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund is mainly supporting a two-month ORBIS fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, for Indian paediatric opthalmologist, Dr Kuldeep Srivastava. He is head of the Children’s Eye Care Centre at Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya (SNC) an eye hospital in Madhya Pradesh, central India, one of the poorest regions in the country.

The fellowship will develop Dr Srivastava’s ability to provide children’s eye care services and he will provide training for colleagues in the skills he acquires in London. During the fellowship Dr Srivastava will be mentored by consultant opthalmologist John Lee, a leading figure in paediatric ophthalmology.

In 2003 ORBIS began an extensive programme to build and equip SNC’s paediatric eye care centre, provided essential training in paediatric eye care subspecialities, and set up a widespread outreach programme. ORBIS has also established an education programme to teach parents and teachers to identify eye problems in children, the treatments available, and how to access them. Each year SNC’s Children’s Eye Care Centre handles about 7,000 new child patients and over 600 sight saving surgeries are performed. Childhood blindness is a significant problem in India where much of the population live in rural areas with limited access to eye care.

One patient who has benefited from the ORBIS SNC project is fifteen year old Sushila. She and her family live in a small village and her father Bandra is an agricultural labourer. Two years ago Sushila’s eyes began to itch and became inflamed. Her parents took her to a traditional healer who gave her an ointment made from clarified butter, camphor and herbs. Unfortunately Sushila’s vision continued to deteriorate and she could no longer see objects well enough to help at home.

Sushila’s parents had no idea that surgery could save her sight until a friend of the family in another village explained how his own daughter had a similar problem and had been successfully treated at SNC. Sushila and her father took the 160 km round trip to the hospital where Dr Srivastava examined her and recommended immediate surgery for the removal of a cataract in one of her eyes under local anaesthetic. Their fears about being admitted to hospital, seeing strange members of staff, and undergoing surgery were allayed by a paediatric counsellor who explained the procedure and the importance of aftercare to prevent infection. A month later Sushila and her father returned to the SNC for a follow-up where they were told that the surgery was completely successful and that the removal of the cataract from her other eye would restore her vision to normality.

Dr Srivastava	The SNC Paediatric Ward
Sushila	A post-operative exam
The SNC Outreach Spectacle Distribution Project	Chitrakoot Community Screening Programme

See ORBIS's webpage about the Miriam Hyman Memorial Fund here