PCRF - Ophthalmic Surgery

Medical Missions: Ophthalmic Surgery
Many poor Arab patients throughout the Middle East lost their eyesight too soon due to the lack of adequate ophthalmic care. The PCRF has been sending ophthalmic missions to Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq since 1998 and have saved the eyesight of hundreds of patients. Working as volunteers, the teams of ophthalmic specialists bring thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies and equipment and help train local doctors and nurses while treating poor and needy patients. In 2001, the PCRF established a working relationship with the Ministry of Health in Syria to provide long-term training to local ophthalmic surgeons, as well as treatment for patients in Hasakeh. We will continue to work also in Palestine and other regional countries in the future to provide help in this important medical field.

Eye team treats people in Nablus
On April 12, a 4-member team of doctors and nurses arrived at Rafidiah hospital in Nablus to being a week of cataract surgery on poor people in the northern West Bank. Led by Dr. Francis Nathan from Australia, the team included Dr. Luis Felipe Arévalo from Peru, Baillie Brown from the USA and Merlin Nathan from Australia. Most of this team has volunteered on many PCRF missions to Nablus, Gaza and Lebanon over the years. Several dozen poor people will have their sight restored by this team, who are all volunteers.

PCRF supports INMAA ophthalmic mission
In early November, 2007, the PCRF cooperated with an NGO called INMAA to provide 118 poor Palestinian and Lebanese cataract, glaucoma and ptrygium operations. The team included the surgeons Dr. Kathy Lentz from the States, DR. Janak Sha from India, Dr. Francis Nathan from Australia, and OR nurse Baillie Brown from the USA. The PCRF provided equipment and administrative support for this mission, which was held at the Mohamad Khaled Asso Hospital in Ouzaei, Beirut.

Ophthalmic Team Treats Refugees in Lebanon
On May 19, 2007, Dr. Francis Nathan, an ophthalmic surgeon from Australia, and Baillie Brown, a nurse from the USA, arrived in Lebanon to begin a week of treating refugees in the camps suffering from cataracts. This is their third mission to the Middle East through the PCRF this year, as they did missions in Nablus, the West Bank earlier in the year. They are working at the Haifa Hospital in the Bourj Al Barajnah refugee camp in Beirut. Despite the fighting around the Nahd El Barad refugee camp in the north of Lebanon, the team continues to provide humanitarian services for the refugee population in Lebanon, who are suffering in Lebanon due to poverty and discrimination as refugees.

Cataract Mission Returns to Nablus
On March 24th, 2007, a 3-member team of opthalmic surgeons returned to Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus to perform cataract surgery on poor people in need. Led by Dr. Francis Nathan from Australia and Baillie Brown from California, who both were in Nablus through the PCRF in January, as well as Dr. Roberto Jules from El Salvador, who was in Nablus last year through the PCRF, they did over 80 sight-saving operations, despite IDF incursions into the town, which killed two people.

Ophthalmology Mission to West Bank
On January 21, 2007, Dr. Francis Nathan from Australia and American nurse Baillie Brown arrived in Palestine for a week of cataract surgery on poor people in the northern West Bank. Working at Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus, the team will provide much-needed sight-saving surgery on dozen of poor people.

106 Palestinians Have Sight-saving Surgery in Nablus
On April 1, 2006, a 4-member team of doctors and nurses from the USA and El Salvador traveled to the West Bank for a week of cataract surgery on poor people who cannot be treated locally. Led by surgeons Dr. Roberto Jules and Dr. Karla Salazar from El Salvador, and PCRF ophthalmic coordinator Ballie Brown. This was the second cataract mission to the Middle East in 2006 by the PCRF. The other mission was in January in Syria.

Ophthalmology Team Treats Patients in Nablus
On December 5, 2005, a 3-member team of eye surgeons and nurses arrived at Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus for a week of cataract surgery on poor Palestinian patients. The mission was organized by Baillie Brown, the PCRF ophthalmic coordinator. She also served as OR nurse for the mission. Nearly 100 operations were done on patients from the Nablus district by two surgeons from El Salvador, Dr. Carlos Eduardo Alas Gudiel and Dr. Hugo Enrique Salazar Banegas.

Australian Ophthalmic Mission treats patients in Nablus
On July 10th, 2005, a 4-member team led by Dr. Francis Nathan from Australia went to Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus for a week of eye surgery on Palestinian patients with cataracts. The team also included Dr. Qanawati, a Palestinian eye surgeon from Beit Jala, who works in St. John's Hospital in East Jerusalem. By bringing donated supplies and working long hours, the team was able to treat several patients a day with cataracts, addressing the long waiting list in Palestine for people suffering with this disorder. Dr. Nathan has led many trips for the PCRF to Palestine, including Gaza, as well as Lebanon and Syria. His trip was also sponsored in part by Australian Friends for Palestine.

Australian Eye Surgeon Returns to Gaza
On November 27th, 2004, Dr. Francis Nathan traveled to Gaza for a week-long mission in ophthalmic surgery at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. This was Dr. Nathan's second mission to Palestine in 2004, as he did a week of surgery in Nablus in February. He has led several missions over the past several years to the Middle East for the PCRF, including trips to Syria and Lebanon. Dr. Nathan performed cataract surgery on poor refugees in the southern part of Gaza. He is from Adeliade, Australia.

PCRF Sends Glaucoma Specialist for Two-week Training Workshop in Gaza City
On July 6th, 2004, Dr. James Standefer, a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota, went to Gaza City through the PCRF to train Palestinian eye surgeons for two-weeks at the Ministry of Health Eye Hospital in the Nasser section of Gaza City. Prof. Standefer returned from Afghanistan shortly beforehand, where he also provided the same training for local doctors. He was very happy with his response from his Palestinian doctors after the first surgery. Glaucoma is a serious problem in Gaza, and Prof. Standefer's trip has already helped improve the quality of care for Gaza patients in the future. Read More>>>

The PCRF Bring More Eye Surgeons Tackle Cataract In Nablus
On February 21, 2004, The PCRF sent Australian Ophthalmic surgeon Dr. Francis Nathan and Dr. Ernesto Basauri from Spain to Nablus to perform cataract surgery for poor refugees. This was Dr. Nathan's fourth mission to Palestine with the PCRF and his third in Nablus. He was last in Palestine in October of 2003, where he performed cataract surgery for over 70 patients. Dr. Nathan and Dr. Basauri continued on the success of the previous mission by returning to Rafidia Hospital for a week of cataract surgery, where they treated over 90 patients. The mission was assisted by occupational therapist Merlin Francis, who continued to work in Palestine after the mission to coordinate workshops on occupational therapy in the West Bank. The two surgeons plan to continue coming to Palestine with the PCRF in the future.

Australian Eye Surgeon Returns to Nablus
In October, 2003, The PCRF sent Dr. Francis Nathan (left) and PCRF ophthalmic coordinator Ballie Brown (right) to Nablus to treat many poor patients with cataract. The two-person team worked in Rafidia Hospital in Nablus from October 18-23 and was able to save the sight of over 70 patients. The team brought with them thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies, including an autoclav that was donated by the PCRF. Dr. Nathan and Ballie Brown also worked very closely with the hospital and Ministry of Health in order to try to come up with a solution to alleviate the current backlog of patients in need of cataract surgery in the area. This was Dr. Nathan's fifth mission with PCRF. He was last in Palestine in October 2002, when he worked for one week in the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

Ophthalmic Surgical Team Treats Refugees In Lebanon
From July 24-26, 2003 Dr. Rida Said from Damascus, Syria treated poor refugees at Al Hamshiry Hospital in Saida in need of cataract surgery. This mission was organized by PCRF ophthalmic coordinator, Baillie Brown, and provided several poor people the eye care they needed to see better, as well as professional screening of needy patients in need of expert care. Dr. Said and Ms. Brown have work as part of PCRF teams in the past in Northern Syria and hope to continue to provide poor Palestinian refugees the eye care that they need, but which is not available to them locally.

Australian Ophthalmic Surgeon Comes to Gaza
In October 2002, the PCRF sent Dr. Francis Nathan, an eye surgeon from Australia, to the European Hospital in Khan Younis to do cataract surgery on poor Palestinians in the neglected southern district of the Gaza Strip. He arrived on the 6th of October, the same day the IDF killed 18 civilians in Khan Younis. Despite the massacre, Dr, Nathan was still able to treat dozens of poor people. Dr. Nathan has worked in the Middle East through the PCRF many times in the past, providing sight-saving surgery for poor people in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. Working for a week at the European Hospital, Dr. Nathan was able to provide sight-saving treatment using thousands dollars worth of donated supplies to a neglected population in the southern part of Gaza.

Two Ophthalmic Missions to Syria
In April and June, 2002, the PCRF sponsored teaching missions to Hasakeh, Syria to train local doctors and treat patients in ophthalmic surgery. These missions were led by Baillie Brown, a nurse on our medical advisory board, who gets tens of thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies. It is also in cooperation with the Ministry of Health in Syria. Below are a list of patients who were treated during these missions and are now able to see again. >>List of Patients Treated

October, 2001 Mission to Syria Helps Many More Poor Patients
In early October of 2001, the PCRF sent a mission led by Ophthalmic coordinator Baillie Brown and Lebanon/Syria Coordinator Nuha Al-Masry on their second working mission to Hasakeh Hospital in Syria in 2001. Bringing thousands of dollars worth of donated surgery supplies and working with local surgeons trained in the May mission, they were able to get over a dozen poor patients sight-saving surgery that was otherwise not available to them there. >>List of Patients Treated

May, 2001 Mission Saves
the Sight of Poor People in Syria
In May 2001, the PCRF sent a five member team of ophthalmic surgeons and nurses to Hasakeh Hospital in northern Syria to do cataract surgery and to train local doctors. Taking with them thousands of dollars worth of donated supplies, they performed almost three dozen sight-saving operations in only a week. Led by Baillie Brown, the PCRF ophthalmic coordinator and surgeons Dr. Francis Nathan and Dr. Greg Hay, the team saved the sight of many patients who otherwise would not have received the surgery they needed. Working closely with the local staff at Al-Hasakah Hospital and under the support of the local Ministry of Health, the team often put in 12 hour days, doing several eye operations a day.
The list of cases who were treated by Ophthalmic Surgery Team

Ophthalmic Mission to Syria/Iraq
In January 2001, the PCRF sent its Lebanon field-worker, Ms. Nuha Al-Masry, and our ophthalmic coordinator, Ms. Baillie Brown, to do an evaluation of the eye surgical needs of poor people in Syria and Iraq. They went for 10 days and met with many doctors and hospitals to do a good evaluation of the ophthalmic needs. As a result of that visit, we will be sending an eye surgery team to Syria and Iraq, as well as Palestine, in the coming months to provide sight-saving eye surgery for poor people, as well as training for local doctors.

Surgery Team Treats Eye Patients
in Lebanon Refugee Camps in November 2000
The PCRF sent Dr. Francis Nathan, an Ophthalmic surgeon from Australia, with PCRF Ophthalmic coordinator Baillie Brown, to Al-Hamshiry Hospital in Lebanon to treat Palestinian refugees in cataract surgery. Bringing thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies with them, the team treated several poor patients who were losing their sight and could not be treated locally there.

Eye Team Treats Patients in Nablus
In May, 2000 the PCRF sent Dr. Francis Nathan and Baillie Brown to Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus to do cataract surgery on poor patients in need of surgery not available to them in the West Bank. Working during a week of violent clashing in the Nablus area, in which hundreds of people were injured or killed, they were able to save the sight of dozens of patients who otherwise would not get the care that they need. They took with them thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies.

Eye Team Treats Refugees in Lebanon
In April, 2000 the PCRF sent a 4-member team of ophthalmic surgeons from "Sight to the Blind" to work in Al-Hamshiry Hospital. Providing free sight-saving surgery for several poor Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the team was able to also bring thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies with them into Lebanon, which was donated to the Palestine Red Crescent Society there. See list of patients treated

Sight for the Blind Treats Patients in Gaza and Nablus, October 1998.
In 1998, the PCRF sent a six member team of ophthalmic doctors and nurses from an American organization called "Sight for the Blind" on a two-week mission to the Eye Hospital in Gaza and Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus. Led by Dr. David Duecker and Dr. Kathy Lentz, the team performed a variety of cataract and glaucoma operations on poor patients, including the first "Ahmed Implant" on a patient in Gaza. In addition to dozens of free operations, the team also brought with them tens of thousands of dollars worth of donated medical supplies. See list of patients treated in Nablus and Gaza