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Edited on Tue Jan-24-06 08:42 AM by Judi Lynn
A quick google run shows: Cuba offers free Eye Surgery to Belizeans
The Island Newspaper, Ambergris Caye, Belize Vol. 15, No. 37 September 15, 2005
Twenty people departed San Pedro Town on Monday, September 12th, 2005, bound for Cuba to receive free eye surgery, which will be provided to them free of cost. Last Friday, Dr. Silvia L. Alvarez and María N. Lam, accompanied by Cuban optometrist Frances Jones visited "La Isla Bonita" to conduct screening on anyone who suffers from any eye disease. After a complete eye exam, 54 patients have been approved to travel to Cuba and have their conditions remedied. The surgery, along with trip to and from Cuba, accommodation, hospital fees and medication will all be provided free of cost. In an interview with Cuban Ambassador to Belize, Eugenio Martinez, this program named Misión Milagro (Miracle Mission) first began in Venezuela where approximately 60,000 patients traveled to Cuba for eye surgery. "Because of financial constraints or the inaccessibility to the services, many individuals suffer from conditions that are very easy to treat. Since we receive these surgeries free of charge in Cuba, we decided to start helping other people," stated Ambassador Martinez. He went on to explain, "Approximately eight million people worldwide suffer from treatable conditions like cataracts that we could help out. In Venezuela, in one year we provided surgeries for thirty-eight thousand people; more than one hundred patients a day. We have the facilities and the capacity to treat up to twenty thousand patients at a time. We started with the Caribbean, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Belize." (snip/...) http://www.sanpedrosun.net/old/05-373.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last Updated: Wednesday, 30 November 2005, 20:45 GMT Panama welcomes Cuba eye surgery Cuba is proud of its health system and highly-trained doctors Panama President Martin Torrijos says he wants to thank Cuban President Fidel Castro for giving many poor Panamanians their sight back, on a visit to Havana. Dozens of Panamanians are arriving in Cuba for free eye operations, under a scheme called Operation Miracle.
Cuba already offers thousands of poor Latin Americans free medical treatment. (snip/...) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4486708.stm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cuba’s eye surgery program becomes popular in Caribbean 11/5/2005
From: The Militant, New York
By: ARRIN HAWKINS
Submitted by Leon Gilbert
The Cuban government has expanded its medical program Misión Milagro (Mission Miracle) to residents of Latin America and the Caribbean, providing operations in Cuba free of charge for people with cataracts and other treatable eye conditions.
The program grew out of Cuba’s internationalist collaboration in Venezuela, where nearly 20,000 Cuban doctors are providing health care in rural and working-class communities. So far, tens of thousands of Venezuelans have received eye operations in Cuba.
Since the program was expanded in July, more than 5,000 people from 10 Caribbean countries have had operations in Cuba to restore their sight, the Cuban embassy in Guyana has reported. The joint Cuban-Venezuelan plan, covering people from all Latin America and the Caribbean, offers to treat 600,000 people a year over the next 10 years.
Cuban doctors are performing some 1,500 eye operations a day. Free transportation to Cuba is provided along with food and lodging for the patients. The simple operation takes about 10 minutes.
More than 2,000 Guyanese so far have received eye treatment in Cuba. “If people had to go to a private doctor for the same treatment, it could cost up to US$2,000 each,” the Guyanese health minister told the Jamaican Observer.
More than 3,000 patients from Belize have received eye surgery. “Because of financial constraints or the inaccessibility to the services, many individuals suffer from conditions that are very easy to treat,” said Eugenio Martínez, Cuba’s ambassador to Belize, in an interview in the September 15 issue of the Belizean newspaper San Pedro Sun.
David Scott, a 75-year-old Jamaican farmer, had been blind from cataracts for two years before his sight was restored in Cuba in September. Surgery at a local hospital had repeatedly been postponed. “When you can’t see it makes you miserable and it is like you’re sick and a part off your life is gone,” Scott told the Jamaica Observer. “When them take off the bandage off me eye me see the wall and the doctors. Oh man, you can’t imagine how it feel.” (snip/...) http://geoffandwen.com/blind/newsarticle.asp?u_id=9614On edit, adding: More than 100 Guyanese off to Cuba for eye surgery ‘Batch’ system to be implemented in local screening process July 26, 2005
The first batch of Guyanese eye-patients left Guyana today for Cuba to undergo surgery for various eye ailments. The batch, estimated to number 117 and including five children met President Bharrat Jagdeo and Cuban Ambassador Jose Manuel Inclan at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) prior to their departure.
Addressing the patients, who were packed to leave for their one-weesk stay in Cuba, President Jagdeo wished the patients good luck and thanked the Cuban Government for its generous offer.
On July 20, Guyana and Cuba took its relations a step higher through another humanitarian gesture by the Government and people of Cuba to Guyanese. Special Envoy to Cuban President Fidel Castro, Maria Elena Soto, brought a message from President Castro to President Jagdeo that Guyanese can access eye-care treatment and surgery in Cuba at the expense of the Cuban Government. The programme addresses cataract and glaucoma, as well as several other eye-related illnesses and is fully funded by the Cuban Government.
Three Cuban ophthalmologists arrived in Guyana on July 21 to begin the examination and screening of Guyanese patients.
The President explained to the patients that the Government of Guyana has an existing eye-care programme, but it has been stretched and found to be inadequate. The Guyana Government’s $50M eye care programme provides spectacles and there is a surgery programme, which is executed from the Low Vision Centre at the Georgetown Hospital, where the screening of patients for surgery in Cuba is being done.
“So it was a god-send when President Castro sent his special envoy. I am amazed at the speed at which the programme is being implement. She spoke to me and the next day the doctors were here,” he said.
Patients will be given a one-week post-surgery care before returning to Guyana. According to the Director of Regional Health Service Dr. Bheri Ramsarran, who has been placed in charge of the programme, the Cuban doctors in Guyana will give the patient three months post-operative care upon their return. (snip/...) http://www.op.gov.gy/stories/050726.htm
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