Raj and his wife, Ramya, acted quickly and took Priyansh to a local doctor who diagnosed him with a tumor. After more consultations, the family was advised to get treatment at the Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer at the L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India.

The Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer was made possible by the generous gift of an anonymous Canadian family, and through our longtime collaboration with the renowned eye hospital. Since 2015, the Institute has provided comprehensive treatment for the entire range of ophthalmic tumors in both adults and children. It is one of just a handful of centres in the world that specializes in this type of treatment.

Once he arrived at the Institute, Pryiansh was examined by an ophthalmologist who diagnosed him with fourth-grade retinoblastoma, a severe form of eye cancer that largely affects very young children.

With the level of danger the cancer presented, the doctor recommended that the affected eye be surgically removed. Although heartbroken by the diagnosis, the family knew surgery was their only hope to save their son. The operation was a success, and Priyansh’s outlook improved, but the journey was far from over. Following the surgery, Priyansh underwent grueling chemotherapy sessions to make sure there were no remaining cancer cells. The little boy was left weakened and frail, but kept his spirits up during treatment.

Due to the demands of Priyansh’s treatment, Raj, who works as a taxi driver, had to take time off work. In order to help free the family from the financial burden caused by Priyansh’s diagnosis, the L V Prasad Eye Institute was able to offer the treatment completely free of charge, allowing the family to focus on recovery.

Today, Priyansh is stable, and his parents are extremely grateful for the care he received.

To date, the Operation Eyesight Universal Institute for Eye Cancer has identified and treated 18,515 patients for eye cancer.

With special thanks to the L V Prasad Eye Institute, who originally reported this story.

The post Early detection gives little boy a second chance at life appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

World Prematurity Day: Dr. Ashi Khurana, Vice-Chairman, C.L. Gupta Eye Institute on preventing blindness in premature infants

An eye condition that is all but invisible to parents, pediatricians and the community can silently rob premature and low-weight infants of their sight. The condition must be treated early or the infant can go blind, not as a baby, but years later as a child. The condition is called Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), and in 2016, it became all too visible to eye doctors at C. L. Gupta Eye Institute.

Dr. Khurana remembers a doctor coming to her and being “very concerned as they found that a lot of children were coming in and had gone blind due to ROP.” It was a major problem that no other organization was addressing. ROP can be treated but it requires screening, diagnosis and urgent treatment that can include injections and laser eye surgery.

However, there was no widespread public health initiative to address ROP. Dr. Khurana and her team saw the shadow that blindness from ROP caused on children, their families, the health care system and society. Though a small number of babies develop ROP and lose their sight, “there is a huge impact on the life of that child and their family because someone, often the mother, becomes the caregiver.” There is a direct impact on the mental, physical and financial resources in a family, she says. Later treatment is also often complex, intensive and has poor outcomes. “It is very frustrating as a doctor,” says Dr. Khurana, “when there is not much you can do for a condition that could have been prevented.”

Conditions impacting premature infants, such as ROP, are on the rise

Premature births are a global issue. The World Health Organization data from 2020 estimates that 13.4 million babies, or one in 10, were born premature.

India has the highest prevalence of premature births in the world. Data from the Lancet found that three million premature babies were born in India in 2020.

The emergence of local NICUs has greatly increased the survival rate of premature infants. This has led to a shift from survival to quality of life by addressing the complications of prematurity. “ROP is a modern disease as more babies survive due to high quality NICUs,” Dr. Khurana says.

Conditions of Premature Infants on the Rise

To address the growing need and fill the gap in service, Dr. Khurana and her team launched an ROP screening program in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Initially it was a pilot and then it expanded to include a partnership with Operation Eyesight Universal and was called the Retinopathy of Prematurity Eradication Project.  

On a mission to raise awareness and start screening for ROP

At that time, Dr. Khurana remembers that C. L. Gupta Eye Institute was not getting a lot of referrals from pediatricians to screen the eyes of premature infants for ROP. She knew that they needed to start an awareness campaign to educate doctors and pediatricians about ROP and the need to screen. “It should just happen, like a vaccine,” Dr. Khurana says.

The team started knocking on doors and going into NICUs to talk to not only doctors but also NICU managers and nurses, who are often the ones responsible for requesting ROP screenings.

Screening requires specialists and equipment often found in an eye hospital. As premature infants cannot travel and spend their first few weeks in emerging NICUs, the screening needs to take place there. However, many of the infants are fighting for their lives. “They have a lot of complications and there is a lot of priorities for doctors and stress for families,” Dr. Khurana says. “And then with all that, this issue of blindness comes up.”

There are also a limited number of eye doctors, and it can be challenging for them to travel to multiple NICUs to screen premature infants “who may or may not have an eye problem.”

An ambitious screening goal

The initial goal was to screen 500 children “which was huge,” Dr, Khurana says. To achieve this they sent optometrists to screen premature infants for ROP regularly at 40 local NICUs. Infants with ROP were referred to C. L. Gupta Eye Institute for urgent treatment.

In the first phase, the team screened 464 premature infants and saved 50 children from blindness. “It has been very satisfying for our doctors,” Dr. Khurana says.

In addition to raising awareness among medical staff, Dr. Khurana’s team started to educate the community as well. Not all parents are able to understand why screening and treatment are needed. There can be literacy and poverty issues that need to be addressed and at times, parents may deny treatment. Gender can be a factor as can birth order, if there are many children in the family.

People who can pay do, those who can pay part of the cost contribute what they can and those who cannot pay are supported by Operation Eyesight Universal. In this way, “everyone receives care and treatment.”

The second phase of the project launched on July 16, 2024, expanding beyond Moradabad to Sambhal, Bijnor, Amroha, Rampur and Baduan. Reaching these semi-urban areas was possible due to a mobile van with the required equipment, made possible through the Rotary Foundation, for onsite screening and treatment in rural and underserved areas, a tele-ophthalmology platform that allows experts to provide remote consultations, diagnoses, and treatment recommendations, an expanded network of neo-natal intensive care units in the five new regions and continued medical education to raise awareness of ROP, capacity and skills of NICU staff in the additional districts.

In December 2024, the Retinopathy of Prematurity Eradication Project ends. Services will be maintained with C. L. Gupta Eye Institute, a non-profit, covering costs for those who cannot pay, and working with NICUs.

ROP is a modern disease that requires resources

ROP is being studied and the ROP Society of India is looking at the impact of the condition on the country. As more NICUs emerge and more premature infants survive, ROP is appearing more frequently.   

Now, Dr. Khurana and her team are working to raise awareness of ROP in the community, among parents and with medical professionals. What is needed is more resources, public health support and training for doctors.  

For now, her team is small but dedicated. “It is satisfying for us to make a difference in the lives of these children and families,” she says.  

For the premature infants and their families in and around Moradabad, there is hope of a bright future. 

Learn about Baby Aarsh, who was a beneficiary of ROP treatment in this program and the impact of this treatment on his life and the life of his family.

Watch our video about the Retinopathy of Prematurity project at the C. L. Gupta Eye Institute:

The post Preventing blindness in premature infants with Dr. Ashi Khurana appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

So, imagine trying to pick tea efficiently when your eyes are clouded over with cataracts.

This was the situation for 36-year-old Milan, who lives at the Nahorjan Tea Estate in Assam, India.

He had worked as a tea picker for years before his vision started to fade. When his wife passed away suddenly, he was left alone to support their four young children. Shortly after, his eyesight reduced so much that he was able to detect little more than hand movement in front of his eyes.

Robbed of his ability to work, Milan and his children moved in with his father, leaving the burden of supporting the family on the aging grandfather.

“Assam tea is the best tea in the world, but while plucking the tea, the workers have more exposure to sunlight,” says Operation Eyesight Project Manager Tapobrat Bhuyan. “Sadly, long hours of exposure to solar radiation can contribute to the early development of cataracts.”

Hope arrived for Milan in February when he attended a screening camp at the tea estate, which we had organized with our local partner Chandraprabha Eye Hospital.

Days later, the hospital sent a bus to collect Milan and other patients to transport them for their surgeries in the nearby city of Jorhat. Milan underwent phacoemulsification surgery on both eyes, a technique that is considered the gold standard in cataract removal because it reduces recovery time.

About a month later, Milan was back at work picking tea. He’s grateful that he can once again support his family. Thanks to the compassion of our partners and donors like you, he and his children have hope for a brighter future.

Click here to make a difference in the life of a family like Milan’s today.

The post A father’s livelihood and hope restored appeared first on Operation Eyesight.

Or picture yourself shopping at the local marketplace and wondering if you’re being shortchanged by the vendor because you can’t see the numbers on the coins.

That’s what Sharda, who lives in a village in Uttar Pradesh, India, experienced during her 35 years of near-blindness.

Until recently, Sharda had never seen her grandchildren’s faces.

The grandmother started losing her eyesight after being bitten by a snake – an injury that affected both eyes. During a hospital visit, a health worker told her that they couldn’t do anything to help her, even though Sharda was in a position to pay for eye health services. She travelled all the way to Punjab, where her sister lives, to see if she could get help there, but once again, she was turned away without treatment.

One day, Sharda met a community health volunteer who was going from house to house as part of our project with the C. L. Gupta Eye Institute (CLGEI) in nearby Moradabad. The volunteer quickly assessed Sharda’s eyes and concluded that she had cataracts, and gave her a referral to CLGEI, where she got a formal diagnosis and an appointment for surgery.

After getting both cataracts removed, Sharda was amazed at the dramatic recovery of her vision. She could finally see her grandchildren clearly.

Today, Sharda is back to cooking and shopping, and once again feels loved and valued by her family. With a new lease on life, she tells everyone she knows about the CLGEI vision centre and how staff there helped her regain her sight.

This now-tireless eye health ambassador has her sights set on her next project: her husband. Sharda says she’s taking him to the hospital soon to get his cataracts removed as well.

You too can be an eye health ambassador – please share our website with others or make a donation.

The post An eye health ambassador’s long journey to restored sight appeared first on Operation Eyesight.