Power House Performance by NZ Aid Eye Care Team

PRESS RELEASE 24/05/2011

Power House Performance by NZ Aid Eye Care Team

A team of seven New Zealand eye care specialists, working with Cook Islands medical professionals, has just completed examining the eyes of nine hundred and seventy Cook Islanders - and performed cataract or laser surgery on sixty two of these patients – setting a new record for this New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Aid Programme.

In 1969 Mike Webber, a Whanganui optometrist, became aware that many hundreds of Cook Islanders suffered eye conditions that left untreated would lead to blindness. In the spirit of what is best about the Kiwi character Webber decided to do something to help. This one man band soon grew into a team of willing volunteers that, eighteen years ago, evolved into NZ Aid Eye Care Team to provide specialist eye care services to the Cook Islands.

Just after Easter, the Eye Care Team’s advance group of optometrists, including seventy four year old Webber, travelled to nearly all Southern Group islands to carry out eye examinations. Most patients only needed reading glasses but this triage system identified those showing signs of diabetes, or macular degeneration, for referral to the specialist ophthalmological team assembling in Rarotonga.

In the spirit of volunteerism underpinning this New Zealand Aid Programme, Zeiss New Zealand loaned a surgical laser to the Eye Care Team, and sent a technician to Rarotonga to calibrate the sensitive instrument. The laser was used to treat diabetic patients by quickly cauterising blood leakages into the back of the eye.

For cataract patients, afflicted by varying degrees of blindness, the surgery carried out by Eye Care Team leader Dr Paul Rosser produced something akin to a miracle. The day after surgery, just as soon as each eye patch was removed, the patient’s delight in seeing again was universally expressed in words and beaming smiles.

The last members of the Eye Care Team flew out of Rarotonga in the early hours of Friday 13th May satisfied with what had been achieved for so many, by so few.

To view an image that accompanies this release please visit:
http://mediacom.nzpa.co.nz/pressrelease.php?PR=14422

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