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Doctor brings sight and hope to Guizhou鈥檚 poor
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An old woman, totally blind with two cataracts, lived alone deep in the mountains of Guizhou Province in southwest China. She felt her way around with a bamboo stick and was dependent on others for food and care. When she heard doctors were coming to perform cataract surgery, she was so excited that she got up at 3am. She fell and hurt her head, but she still made the bus.
“We patched her up immediately. Cataract surgery could be risky in those conditions, but it was her only chance and she insisted,” says ophthalmologist Zhang Xingru, vice-president and chief of ophthalmology at Putuo Central Hospital. He headed a team of 72 doctors and volunteers visiting Xishui County, Guizhou, where they performed 371 free cataract surgeries in nine days this month. They treated 3,983 patients.
Now the old woman has some eyesight and can take care of herself.
“There are many elders like the old lady, using tree branches or bamboo sticks as crutches,” Zhang says. “They live in the mountains alone because their children come to the big cities to work.” Zhang is also president of Liqun Hospital in Putuo.
‘Tour of Sight’
Millions of people in China need cataract surgery and almost half live in poor areas, according to Zhang.
In 2006 Zhang started an annual charity program “Tour of Sight” to give sight and hope to thousands of impoverished people in poor and remote areas who otherwise would never get help. The team has traveled to ethnic minority areas in autonomous regions and provinces including Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Yunnan. More than 1,000 cataract surgeries have been performed and many more patients have received other treatment.
The trip to Guizhou was the eighth medical charity trip organized by Zhang and his team. The team returned on August 11.
Last year they went to Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China’s Qinghai Province. They saw 1,180 patients and performed 161 cataract surgeries over nine days.
‘Best’ principles
On the Guizhou trip the team took advanced medical equipment worth 3.5 million yuan (US$ 571,679) and supplies worth 1.2 million yuan.
The group donated 70,000 yuan worth of equipment, 30,000 yuan worth of medicine and 40,000 in cash, Zhang says.
“Our standard of supplies and our procedures in rural areas are equal to those in Shanghai,” he says.
“We have four principles. Take the best doctors, the best equipment, the best medicine and use the best procedures.”
This year, the doctors are experienced ophthalmologists and surgeons from 14 hospitals in Shanghai and all the medical equipment and artificial crystals for intra-ocular lens implants are imported.
“For many people in remote regions, this might be their only chance in life. We have to guarantee the surgery is successful and can last a long time because it’s almost impossible to go back and fix problems,” Zhang says.
The team had planned to perform 200 surgeries in Xishui, but many more people desperately needed help. “Our utmost limit was 300 surgeries, so we had to fly more artificial crystals from Shanghai to cope with the high demand,” Zhang says. Even so, some surgeries could not be performed.
Treating one patient costs 3,000 yuan. Funds come from public donations. Donors are strongly urged to volunteer, “otherwise their money will be returned,” according to Zhang. This aims to ensure everyone gets involved and knows exactly how their donations are used.
“As the donor volunteers on a mission, we tell him or her exactly which patients benefit from his or her donation. Donors then pay extra attention to the patients, helping them out in the post-op period,” Zhang said.
“We have 100 percent financial transparency so everyone knows how their money is spent and not a cent is wasted.”
Donations from 10,000 to 50,000 yuan are preferred; the idea is to avoid one person donating a huge amount and let more people donate and be involved in volunteer work.
Volunteers come from all fields — law, media, hospitality and entertainment, among others.
Born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, Zhang entered Lanzhou University at the age of 16 and graduated in 1984. He specializes in cataracts, glaucoma and eye trauma.
On his first mission in 2006, Zhang and two other doctors went to a remote plateau village in Sichuan Province, 4,000 meters above sea level. Four vehicles carried 270 items of medical equipment. A temporary operating theater was set up. They saw 108 patients and performed 18 surgeries. The team slept on brick “beds” in thatched houses.
“People have the right to be able to see the world with their own eyes, and we are giving them an opportunity,” Zhang says. “More importantly, this is about bringing hope to people, letting them know that there are people who care about them.”
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