First Day at Samanala Valley Hospital

We have arrived at Samanala Valley Hospital, a small rural charity hospital close to the centre of Sri Lanka. We have been invited to help with cataract surgery for patients who can find it difficult to access surgery.

Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness worldwide, and the amount of vision that these patients have lost due to cataracts is astounding. Many of the patients we have seen in Sri Lanka are functionally blind, unable to feed or care for themselves without help from family.

I have perfomed hundreds of cataract operations and it is easy to think of cataract surgery as routine, but in these cases, cataract surgery is life changing, bringing not just quality of life, but independance and purpose. It has been a real insight into how catract surgery can transform lives.

It is a real privelege to be able to help bring back thee people’s independance and bring them back to their familes and communities.

A very exciting, and humbling start to our time in Cambodia.

Date: 01/22/2024
The gratitude from the patients is deeply touching.

I was excited and honoured to be asked to help operate at the Khmer Site Foundation in Phenom Penh. The nervousness and the interpretation was finally culminated in our first day! I’m lucky to be working with a fantastic team from all over the UK, comprising of nurses, doctors and optometrists.

It has been very humbling to see such severe site loss from cataract with patients. in the UK, patients usually come to see me when they have blurred vision. In Cambodia, the patients have such dense cataracts that they can barely see. The operations more difficult difficult, and we are even having to use different surgical techniques to remove such dense and hard cataracts.

The extra effort is absolutely worth it!

The patients are immensely grateful for their surgery, and it is an honour to use my skills to help them.