Colombia THREE - Nov 2024
On Thursday 21st November a team of volunteers for The Guru Projects Foundation set off for the charities third mission to Colombia. The team comprised of the following:
Mr Manuel Saldana - East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Mr Saruban Pasu - East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Mrs Lesley Carter - East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Mr Tim Leakey - East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Ms Beckie Heaton - East Sussex
Ms Evgenia Anikina - Royal Berkshire NHS Trust
Mr Martin Layland - Royal Berkshire NHS Trust
Prof Kanch Sharma - North Bristol NHS Trust
As usual we were met with warmth and love from the outpatient and theatre staff at Erasmo Meoz University Hospital, in the city of Cucuta northern Colombia. Over the next eight days the team successfully carried out 211 eye procedures ranging from sight limiting cataracts and pterygia, to eye lid surgery. The population that was served were a group that were not able to access or afford normal healthcare systems, so they were truly in need. We made sure all patients were seen pre and postoperatively. Each working day was long but filled with laughter, complex surgery and tears of shear joy and relief when patients realised that years of blindness had come to an end. The nature of the cataracts we were presented with were far denser and thus were causing far greater symptoms than we see here in the UK. At times the level of emotion in theatre were high enough that nobody had a dry eye. We made sure to schedule in time to teach the medical students at The University of Santander, which received very positive feedback.
The philosophy of The Guru Projects Foundation is that nobody should be living with a reversible cause of blindness and we are confident that with the talented group of volunteers we have on board that all our objectives for each mission will be met.
