Posts

Women's Blindness

What is a Cataract?

September 2, 2020

What is a Cataract? It is the eye’s natural lens that has become cloudy. This can be caused by age, sunlight, diabetes, certain drugs, trauma, smoking and nutritional deficiencies. How is a Cataract treated? When a cataract is mild, there is no need to remove it.  But once it impacts the vision and the person…

January 2019

January 2020

January 1, 2020

In January 2020, I travelled to Tanzania to help Eye Corps, a non-profit organization trying to reduce cataract blindness in underserved communities.  The group was largely composed of smart, hard-working, kind women who volunteer their time to help this organization.  They were nurses, scrub techs, doctors, medical assistants and folks like me with no medical…

JANE DURCAN

March 2019

March 1, 2019

One in three of the world’s 32.4 million blind people are blind due to cataracts. This proportion is closer to one half in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There are millions more who have significant visual impairment from cataracts.The availability of cataract surgical services in SSA is by no means universal, but even where services are available,…

January 2019

January 2019

January 1, 2019

As a surgeon, I have removed thousands of cataracts and I have taught hundreds of residents how to perform cataract surgery with precision and attention to detail. As a volunteer outreach doctor, I brought my equipment and taught several times in various countries.I always thought what I did was exceptional work; at times challenging but…