The Coopers in Guatemala: The Eyes Have It

We do a ton of eye surgeries each year at the clinic for two reasons: 1) older men have worked out in the fields most of their lives without proper eye protection, and 2) older women have been in the kitchen most of their lives without a chimney on their open-flame stoves, causing the smoke to pour into their eyes. This past week, University UMC in San Antonio, TX successfully operated on 50 patients, allowing many of them to see clearly for the first time in many, many years...

We removed cataracts from these three gentlemen. I'm no doctor, but even I can spot a cataract - the eye is completely clouded over...

This is a cataract after being removed. Good thing it didn't have an "M" printed on it or I may have accidently eaten it. Yum!
The surgeons bring new lenses to surgically implant in place of the old, clouded one.

We were also able to operate on 5 children this week. This is Nery and his mom, Esther. Nery attends the preschool and the teachers noticed that because his eyes are crossed he can't properly read or write.

Nery's mom said he was so excited about surgery that he woke up at 1 a.m. for the big day. Esther said that night he prayed, "Please God give me good eyes, and please help the surgeons operate on me." His mom was super nervous.

This is kind of intense, but here's what they did: the surgeons shortened the muscles on one side of his eye in order to stop it from "wandering" to the other side...

...and after just one short hour, both of Nery's eyes are fixed! He loved that we were calling him Spider Man. He came in the next day with a huge smile and his mom, with tears in her eyes, thanked the surgeons.

Here's another little guy we operated on, named Elvis. Before the anesthesia wore off Elvis was like a drunken sailor.