I am Muna Als Suwaidi from UAE. My
brother underwent a cornea transplant at LVPEI. My parents and I too have
undergone treatment here for eye problems. I am now accompanying my cousin who
has debilitating double vision. He struggles to see normally and the double
vision goes away only if he holds his head in a particular position, which
makes it very awkward and embarrassing for him when dealing with people or
attending meetings – he is in the training sector in the police department. He
has been to USA and Korea for treatment and was told he would require two
separate surgeries. My family recommended LVPEI as we have been successfully
treated here and just a single surgery here has got him the required results.
No eye drops, no sunglasses, no lenses, and his double vision is gone more than
95 percent! He is so very happy he could cry. Firstly, he thanks God for the
enormous relief he feels. He is also is very grateful to the treating surgeon
Dr Ramesh Kekunnaya and his team. We have offered a donation to the hospital so
that others who cannot afford to pay for their treatment will receive it at our
expense.
Friday, 8 January 2016
Family Responsibility
Five-year old Balagani Naga Ganesh
Deepak of Vadlamudi village had bluish eyes at birth that was diagnosed as
Congenital Hereditary Endothelial Dystrophy (defective endothelial cells of the
cornea) along with congenital glaucoma (high eye pressure) by Dr Pradeep Kumar
at LVPEI Vijayawada. The bluish tinge remained unresolved even after glaucoma
surgery so he was referred to the Hyderabad campus where Dr Jagadesh Reddy
performed corneal transplantation, replacing the cloudy cornea with transparent
donor corneas, first in the right eye and then the left eye. Later, Dr Preeti
Chhablani operated on both his eyes to remove cataract.
The multiple surgeries have instilled
a sense of responsibility in the young boy and his family. Both his
grandmothers are proud of the boy's keenness to complete his school work before
play every evening. The family for their part has been very vigilant about the
congenital and hereditary eye disease. Naga Ganesh's younger brother was spared
but his little cousin hasn't been so lucky and the grandmother brings him to
LVPEI for periodic examination and treatment.
Internship at LVPEI
The very thought
of a Grade XII student doing an internship at LVPEI is awesome. I had the
privilege, from 19th to 27th November, of interacting with LVPEI's doctors and
engineers. A guided tour of their rehabilitation centre had me see almost all
the ways in which people with reduced vision or blindness can continue to live
a normal life with the help of tools ranging from putting rubber bands on
containers to identify them, to state-of-the-art text-to-speech softwares and
even a 3D vision correcting tool. I observed Dr Nandhini and Dr Matthew work on
an application to analyze the neuropsychology underpinning of perceptual
experience, and Dr Somasheila Murthy in OPD had me realize that ophthalmology
and optometry are subjects of vast study. Dr Virender Sangwan interacted with
me on eye imaging techniques and I was guided on this by Mr Kiran Challa.
At the
microbiology lab, Dr Savitri Sharma showed me the extraction of a sample of
cornea, culturing and observing it under a microscope, and Dr Shivaji, who has
been to both the Arctic and Antarctic,
shared some of his experiences in Biology - it was an educative experience
indeed.
My visit to
Srujana, the Innovation Centre, led me to meet Dhruv Joshi and other Engineers
who are working with world class eye specialists to ease the workflow of
detecting and diagnosing eye problems. It is an awesome application of MITs
Rethinking Engineering Design eXecution principle. I got to see them demo all
their prototypes, and this has given me an insight into a lot of things, led me
to work on a few tasks and made me realize that being an engineer is no hurdle
to improve the lives of others.
Sanketh
Grade XII,
Meridian School, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad
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