Doctor’s vision helps poor in west regions
Print Edition
THE Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang have some of the most beautiful scenery in China, but many of their people are deprived of the view because of eye diseases.
Born in northwestern China’s Gansu Province, ophthalmologist Zhang Xingru knows better than anyone. He was sent to work in Shanghai 15 years ago because of his talent, but he did not forget the people back home. He initiated a charity program to do cataract operations for people living in the most rural areas in China, where poverty is high and the number of ophthalmologists is extremely low.
Over the past nine years, the programs covered nine areas in China, with more than 10,000 patients treated and nearly 1,000 operations performed.
“Every blind person dreams to recover their sight, and their dream is my dream too,” says the 52-year-old, now deputy director of Shanghai’s Putuo District Central Hospital.
The program was initiated in 2004, when Zhang was studying hospital management in Peking University. During a seminar he met a lama from Sichuan Province, who told him that a local government built a hospital with donated funds, but for half a year the hospital couldn’t find a doctor willing to work there. The lama showed him a picture of blind seniors and children, and that image shocked Zhang.
According to official statistics, at least 4 million people are suffering from cataracts in western China.
“Because of strong ultraviolet rays, people living on plateaus have a larger chance of suffering from cataracts,” says Zhang. “Meanwhile, because of gene problems — intermarriage still exists in some of the rural areas in China — the chance of children getting cataracts is higher than that in other regions.”
After the seminar, Zhang decided to organize a team to go to the empty hospital to do operations for local patients. After two years’ preparation, in 2006 the team of five doctors and eight social workers reached Zuoqin, a Tibetan county located on the border of Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet.
They eventually gave cataract operations to 18 people, and all succeeded.
“At first, I didn’t think of doing a long-term program, but recovered people knelt before us repeatedly to show their gratitude, and I was heartbroken,” says Zhang.
He decided to help more patients. Zhang started to pass on the idea to more ophthalmology doctors in Shanghai whenever he had the opportunity, and more doctors responded. The whole project was charitable, as doctors and other volunteers covered their own expenses and took their annual leaves to do the program.
“We only take the best doctors from Shanghai with the best equipment to ensure a 100-percent success rate of the operations,” says Zhang. “After we leave, volunteers from all over the country will visit regularly to check on the patients.”
The business world chipped in with much help for the program. China Eastern Airlines provided discounted tickets to volunteers and allowed them to bring overweight medical equipment. Restaurant owners accompanied them to ensure the food safety of the whole team.
Zhang wishes to train more doctors for the rural areas. “Just like the empty hospital in Sichuan, we found that many hospitals had very good equipment but they just sit in the warehouse because no one uses them. The living conditions and salaries are so poor that talents are driven away.”
Zhang says next year the program will return to western China, and he expresses big ambitions for the future.
“I hope that our action can arouse more concern for needy cataract patients in the western region, so that the whole medical condition can be improved,” he says.
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