Guatamala - UQ-OCS Global Health Experience

Our impact in the local community around Hospitalito Atitilan in Guatemala is growing exponentially and our reputation for excellence in eye care is spreading rapidly. In just two separate 1-week trips to Guatemala, we served a combined total of 900 patients in the clinics and performed a total of 164 eye surgeries! In addition, Dr. Pulin Shah had the privilege of continuing our partnership with Health in Sight Missions, by joining a surgical team serving patients in Roatan, Honduras. There are plans to build a new eye clinic on the island to better serve this population. We would like to share just one of the many touching stories we are privileged to experience on these journeys to deliver eye care. This lovely 4-year-old girl was brought to our clinic in Hospitalito Atitlan, Guatemala by her father in May because of infantile cataracts causing severely poor vision. Even at age 4, she didn’t walk independently due to her poor eye-sight and had to be carried by her parents. She didn’t interact with other children and was very isolated. We performed her first cataract surgery in the right eye in May 2019, and you can see from the photo that her right eye is clear and the left still had a white cataract in the pupil. Dr David Dance performed her second surgery in November 2019, and reported that even with just one eye seeing, she was a completely new kid. She bounced around the clinic and her father described that she now played with her friends and act-ed like a normal 4 year old! Her life changing story is just one example of how these missions are such a gift for everyone involved.