Below is a description of the trip from the perspective of Arun Singh Basnet, our Nepal team leader.
The team of 18 medical personnel, members of HeNN-Nepal team and a driver of HeNN Nepal team's vehicle left Kathmandu early on 19th of November 2004. The total number of people moved for the eyecamp was 24. The stay arrangement for the team was done in District Headquarter of Sarlahi, Malangawa. We reached Malangawa around 8.30 at night.
The next day, the 20th of November the entire team traveled for 60 kilometers from the district headquarter to reach the camp site- Haripurwa VDC of Sarlahi.
As the screening had to be started from 20th of November, arrangement were needed, so the entire team had to wake up at 4 am . We reached Haripurwa at 7am and two hours later screening started.
On the first day 400 people were screened and among them 60 were identified with cataract.
The second day, ie the 21st November was quite hectic and a tough one; the medical team and us had to work under pressure as on this day operations were going on and screening was also taking place. On this day 450 people were screened and 43 individuals were operated for cataract ( the number registered was 60 but due to certain circumstances only 43 people could be operated).
On the third day that is 22nd of November 500 people were screened, the old patients identified with cataract were being operated and the screening of the new patients was taking place simultaneously. Everything was going on smoothly but all of a sudden we were faced with a big problem, the electrical machine which was a must to sterilize the equipments of the operation theater suddenly was damaged ; it had worked till the evening of 22nd but was not useable or was in no condition to be used for the next day.
The medical team told us that if the alternative equipment was not brought then operations cannot take place so I along with a few others had to rush to an Eye hospital in Lahan which was about 125 kilometers away from our camp. We moved around 5pm . In Lahan we requested Sagarmatha Chaudhary Eye Hospital of Lahan to provide us with that equipment. The administrator of the Sagarmatha Chaudahary Eye Hospital Mr.Bindeshwor Mahato was of great help to us as on our request he agreed to provide us with the required equipment.We got the equipment but the great hurdle in front of us was to reach to Malangawa from Lahan because there used to be curfew in this area after 9 at night and so vehicles were not allowed, we traveled counting every second and going through all the checking's. After telling the security force about our problem and clarifying why we were there, our vehicle was granted permission to move even in the curfew. So finally we reached Malangawa around 10 at night.
I must say it was a very tough and dangerous journey but was quite an experience.
On 23 rd and 24 th also, the operations and screening was going on smoothly. The medical team and HeNN team did equally hard work to make the Eye Camp a success and we are also pleased by the arrangements by Yadav Sewa Samiti. So I must say with joint effort from all sides the camp was held successfully. The people of Sarlahi were very grateful towards Help Nepal Network. |
