Laser Centre pledge helps more eye patients get rid of cataracts
Olympia Eye & Laser Centre in Windhoek has pledged N$30,000 for the treatment of patients with cataracts at the Eye Clinic at the Windhoek Central Hospital. This contribution will enable the clinic to treat an additional 250 to 300 eyeballs.
The centre’s pledge is its contribute to mark World Sight Day, commemorated every year on 13 October. Announcing their contribution, the centre said patients with cataracts, on average, have to wait about seven months before they are in line for treatment at the Central Hospital’s Eye Clinic.
Cataracts present as cloudy, whitish discolouration of the outer rim of the eye lens. Patients awaiting surgery are often legally blind due to their advanced cataracts. For people who have cataracts, seeing through cloudy lenses is a bit like looking through a frosty or fogged-up window and if not treated, will inevitably become vision-threatening and impact quality of life.
Olympia Eye & Laser Centre said an essential part of cataract surgery is an intraocular lens, which is what the centre has pledged for the eye clinic. This essential medical implant is commonly used in ophthalmology for the removal of cataracts.
At the Central Hospital Eye Clinic, an average of 1500 cataract procedures are performed annually.
Another 300 to 450 patients are treated during outreach camps which target mostly rural populations.
Support on World Sight Day is important and can be achieved by sensitising board members, colleagues and employees about the importance of having an annual eye test.
Dr Jonathan Joffe and Dr Sven Andreas Obholzer, ophthalmologist at the Olympia Eye & Laser Centre, hand over a symbolic cheque to Dr Ernst van der Merwe of the Windhoek Central Hospital. The funds are dedicated to purchasing these intra ocular lenses to support state patients with vision threatening cataracts.
