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Déjà Vu of a Different Kind

Blog submitted by Dr David Hunter Cherwek
 
Dr David Hunter Cherwek has been a member of the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital since June 2005. During this time, he has served as staff ophthalmologist, lead ophthalmologist, medical director of the Flying Eye Hospital, Director of the Flying Eye Hospital and is currently serving as the medical director for ORBIS International.

During the recent Flying Eye Hospital program in Trujillo, Peru, I experienced one of the most intense moments of déjà vu of my life in the middle of a very busy Screening Clinic in pediatric ophthalmology. For those of you unfamiliar with an ORBIS screening clinic, this is the day when the local host hospital presents up to 30 cases in a particular sub-specialty to ORBIS volunteer faculty, of which an average of 10-15 will be selected for surgery during the week. Multiply that by an average of 5 sub-specialty clinics per screening day (glaucoma, cornea, retina, pediatrics, etc) and you suddenly find yourself amidst 100-125 patients awaiting examination and further treatment.

During this particular screening, I saw a young boy waiting with his mother on a bench and automatically recognized that I had walked him down the stairs of the plane after surgery during a previous program. My “double-take” also caught the attention of the young boy’s mother who grabbed my arm and reached in her purse to pull out a photo album.  She quickly showed me a picture from the 2006 Flying Eye Hospital program in Chiclayo, Peru, with her son and me at the base of the stairs of the Flying Eye Hospital just after the boy’s operation. 

I quickly emailed the ORBIS NY office to get his 2006 chart and Rebecca Saxton-Fox, the Flying Eye Hospital coordinator, responded immediately with his chart by sending me a scanned copy. During the 2006 program, we treated his pediatric glaucoma and since that program the young boy had developed a cataract which we were asked by our host to evaluate during this program. I was very pleased to learn that our pediatric volunteer faculty member, Dr Douglas Frederick, found this boy’s case to be a great teaching case for the local doctors with a positive prognosis and was able to perform his cataract surgery aboard the Flying Eye Hospital. Once again I was able to see this young boy benefit from our team’s efforts.  

Dr Hunter Cherwek reunites with a young patient in Trujillo, Peru

Photos by Perry Athanason

ORBIS’ Youngest Volunteer

Blog submitted by Perry Athanason

Perry Athanason is the Communications Manager on the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital and has been a member of the crew since November 2007.

When Juan Solarte’s father, former Flying Eye Hospital director Dr Carlos Solarte, told him about an airplane with a hospital inside, he imagined the largest plane he could possibly think of. When seeing the plane for the first time in Santo Domingo, his imagination had served him well. His dad told him that he would be working this week (as much as a six-year-old can do), helping him and the ORBIS team deliver its program to the people of the Dominican Republic.

Sitting on the counter of the communications center aboard the Flying Eye Hospital, six-year old Juan explained to me his impressions of the plane and of doing humanitarian work.

“I didn’t think there would be an elevator inside and I thought that Rich was one of the doctors until I saw him working on the plane,” he explained. “I knew this would be a lot of work and my class back home in Colombia wants me to tell them all about it, but I did not imagine how much work it would really be.”

Juan spent the screening days assembling small ORBIS planes and hand-held FedEx fans to give out to the children and adults waiting in the clinic – his favorite part of the program. He met many children his age and his size and was able to greet them eye to eye. He explained to me that he met many children whose eyes were not well and he felt very sad to know that not all would be candidates for surgery during the program.

On humanitarian work, Juan explained how impressed he was that people would work so hard to help other people. After a moment of thought, Juan looked at me and said,

“The people here are all very nice and I hope they all get better and take care of themselves. I feel like I have made lots of friends here.”

Juan joined us on the plane for an afternoon as research for a humanitarian report he scheduled to give to his class upon his return. He spent time talking with the ORBIS staff and learning about what each person does to contribute to the overall mission of ORBIS.

As we continued our interview, Juan told me how interesting the plane was and how he liked that everybody works really hard to deliver these programs. In closing, Juan could not walk away from the interview without commenting again on the elevator inside the plane and, of course, how funny Hunter and Jinsook were every time he saw them.

When Juan returns home, he will deliver a presentation to his kindergarten class at the Collegio Colombo Britannico (CCB) in Cali, Colombia and explain to them about humanitarian work and his visit to the Flying Eye Hospital.

Juan Solarte Interviewing Perry on the Flying Eye Hospital

Photos by Perry Athanason and Carlos Solarte