Pamela is aged 76 years old and lives in a small village near Gusap in the Ramu Valley with her daughter, son and 3 grand children. She has a small vegetable garden of her own, in the back yard of her house where she grows vegetables for her daily needs and cooks them for her family.
As days passed, she slowly started losing her eye sight in both eyes and she did not know why.
She took this as a process of aging and also Gods will. Three years back she went totally blind but never gave up her cooking interest. She would visit her garden daily, feel the small mounds of sweet potato and when she felt they where big and ready, she would dig it out with her small digging stick, then take it to her house, where she would wash and peel them. After peeling she would feel the sweet potato or banana to check if she had completely peeled the skin off, then she would tell her grandchildren to make the fire so that she can cook. She would know when her cooking was ready from the aroma drifting from the pot, and she would tell her children to come and serve dinner.
This went on and she went on with her routine but of course not as sure as she was when she could see with her eyes.
On the day that the Fred Hollows outreach team set out for Gusap, Pamela was gathering her family to ask them to all agree and they prayed to God to take her to heaven because she had enough of her blindness.
Her granddaughter was beside the road when the eye surgery team on their visit to Gusap, dropped the toksave about the surgical outreach in her hand. When she went to the family gathering with the toksave, it was a message sent from God for Pamela.
Pamela was brought to the health centre holding a long stick walking behind her Grand daughter and her son.
Doctor Sameer Dabral examined her eyes and found her to be blind due to mature cataracts in both eyes.
On the very first day, her right eye was operated on. The next day her life changed, she was so happy and very eager to have her other eye operated on.
She has now regained her lost eye sight after 3 years of total darkness, Pamela was excited and very thankful to the eye team at Fred Hollows for bring her sight back..
Today Pamela is having 6/12 vison in both her eyes and she is back to her routine work with full strength and energy.
As days passed, she slowly started losing her eye sight in both eyes and she did not know why.
She took this as a process of aging and also Gods will. Three years back she went totally blind but never gave up her cooking interest. She would visit her garden daily, feel the small mounds of sweet potato and when she felt they where big and ready, she would dig it out with her small digging stick, then take it to her house, where she would wash and peel them. After peeling she would feel the sweet potato or banana to check if she had completely peeled the skin off, then she would tell her grandchildren to make the fire so that she can cook. She would know when her cooking was ready from the aroma drifting from the pot, and she would tell her children to come and serve dinner.
This went on and she went on with her routine but of course not as sure as she was when she could see with her eyes.
On the day that the Fred Hollows outreach team set out for Gusap, Pamela was gathering her family to ask them to all agree and they prayed to God to take her to heaven because she had enough of her blindness.
Her granddaughter was beside the road when the eye surgery team on their visit to Gusap, dropped the toksave about the surgical outreach in her hand. When she went to the family gathering with the toksave, it was a message sent from God for Pamela.
Pamela was brought to the health centre holding a long stick walking behind her Grand daughter and her son.
Doctor Sameer Dabral examined her eyes and found her to be blind due to mature cataracts in both eyes.
On the very first day, her right eye was operated on. The next day her life changed, she was so happy and very eager to have her other eye operated on.
She has now regained her lost eye sight after 3 years of total darkness, Pamela was excited and very thankful to the eye team at Fred Hollows for bring her sight back..
Today Pamela is having 6/12 vison in both her eyes and she is back to her routine work with full strength and energy.