Flying Eye Hospital visits RP

MANILA, Philippines - FedEx Express and ORBIS International brought back the Flying Eye Hospital for a 10-day goodwill visit coinciding with National Blindness Prevention Month.

Aside from performing sight-saving surgeries, the Flying Eye Hospital will also conduct a high-level skills exchange program with St. Luke’s Medical International Eye Institute.

The Flying Eye Hospital, which arrived in the Philippines on the first day of the National Blindness Prevention Month of September, will benefit 75 to 100 Filipinos suffering from blindness and other visual impairments.

Orbis International medical director Dr. David Hunter Cherwek said aside from preserving and restoring eyesight, Orbis’ goal is to transfer skills to the medical and surgical experts in the host countries that they visit.

“Most of you do not know that 80 percent of blindness in the Philippines can be prevented and that every minute worldwide, a child goes blind. This is unacceptable so our goal is to… serve the underserved. With our resources combined, we can do it,” Cherwek said during the launch of the mission at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport-Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

With sponsorship from FedEx and the International Eye Institute of the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), Orbis experts will deliver sight-saving surgeries and skill exchange program with the ophthalmologists, nurses, anesthesiologists and bio-chemical engineers from SLMC.

The surgeries will be performed inside Orbis’ aircraft, which is equipped with state-of-the-art operating room and even a lecture center.

The skill exchange program will focus on cornea transplantation, advanced cataract, vitreoretinal diseases and several diseases affecting children like congenital glaucoma, strabismus and retinopathy of prematurity. 

“The arrival of the Flying Eye Hospital Program is very timely because September is National Blindness Prevention Month. Blindness can be prevented if detected early and we hope that this program will raise awareness about this,” said Dr. Noel Chua, director of SLMC’s International Eye Institute in Global City, Taguig.

According to Orbis International director Dato Kulasegaran Sabaratnan, there are 45 million blind people around the world “but the tragedy is 90 percent of them are right here in our region South East Asia.”

“There are workable solutions to prevent blindness. There has to be in place a long term, structured program against blindness in the Philippines,” he claimed, assuring the country that Orbis is willing to help achieve this goal.

Sabaratnan added that aside from the 45 million blind individuals, 695 million others suffer from visual impairment and the figure might rise to 929 million by 2020 if no intervention is taken now.

Established in 1982, Orbis has already trained 195,000 health care personnel and benefited 6.8 million patients in 86 countries.