6. Eye Camp

Aboard the van to the eye camp

The Aravind ophthalmologist team consists of Staff doctors (Medical Officers, Consultants) and trainee doctors (fellows and residents).  Every weekend on Saturdays and Sundays, a staff doctor and a trainee doctor would be teamed up with a camp outreach coordinator and about ten sisters, to travel to rural Tamil Nadu.  Each Aravind hospital sends out four or more teams per day.

Vision screening

Eye exam by staff and resident ophthalmologists

In a half-day, they would screen 100 to 400+ patients – check vision, perform refraction, measure IOP, perform quick anterior segment exam with flashlight, and dispense very inexpensive glasses from lens blanks and stock frames carried to the eye camp.  These eye camps are held at schools or community halls.  At the end of the eye camp session, an Aravind bus carries about one-third of the patients to the Aravind Eye Hospital for further investigation or surgery.  Other than the glasses, the service is entirely free.  On an excursion in which I participated, the host community volunteer at Chidabarum took the team to breakfast at his small hotel, accompanied the team to the high school to conduct the eye camp, then took them back to lunch at his hotel.  This was the gesture of kindness from the volunteer host to the team that gave their Sunday morning of 7am to 2pm to outreach.  Every weekend, every eye camp, similar interaction would take place.  It is the love of fellow Tamils that moves everyone in the same direction.

At the end of eye camp, Aravind bus carries patient
to hospital for advanced diagnostic tests
or to prepare for cataract surgery

The intent of the eye camp is to screen for cataract blindness.  Once back at the hospital, patients who were bussed in would be triaged according to need.  Some would be seen at specialty clinics in the coming week, and others with confirmed diagnosis of cataract would have eye measurements on Sunday, in preparation for Monday surgery.  These patients would have a dilated fundus exam performed by the residents, a B-scan if the fundus could not be seen, and an A-scan biometry for IOL (intraocular lens) power calculation.  The camp patients from the weekend were prepared for free surgery for the immediate coming Monday.  In addition to camp patients, other patients who came directly for free eye exam and surgery, may also have the surgery on the Monday.  Thus Mondays are the busiest surgery days.

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