PROGNOSIS AFTER SURGERY IS EXCELLENT WITH 90% OF PATIENTS REGAINING THEIR VISION WITHOUT COMPLICATIONS.

Why then is cataract still the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and especially in developing countries? The reason, dear LFCT donors, is the prevalence of abject poverty in many parts of the world.

Imagine that one day their teacher calls and tells you that they don’t perform well in class. Imagine how that night, you sit down to study with your children, & realize that they can’t read their books. They have trouble with their eyes.

Imagine you take them to a doctor, although you can hardly afford his fee, to have their eyes examined. Imagine the doctor tells you that your beloved children have cataracts in both eyes that their vision will diminish slowly, until they will be completely blind. That there is a cure, a simple operation, but that surgery for both your children will cost ten times your monthly income.

This is the story of Farid-ul-Haq, a poor Pakistani factory worker. After their visit to the doctor, Farid came home in despair. How could he face his wife, what should he tell Huma and Suleiman, who asked: “Baba, why did the doctor give us no medicine to make our eyes well?”

A few days later, a friend told him of an eye hospital in a nearby town where care was offered free of charge. Farid took his children there the next day. Ultimately, due to their youth, Huma and Suleiman were referred to an eye hospital in another town, where facilities for general anaesthesia were available. Both received cataract surgery and intra-ocular lens implant in their left eyes on 28 March 2011, completely free of charge. Both children were jubilant the next day, when the dressings were removed: They had never been able to see that well.CATARACT IS A COMMON EYE CONDITION

THAT DEVELOPS WITH AGE.

CATARACT IS AN EYE CONDITION THAT IS EASILY TREATABLE BY A SIMPLE OPERATION PERFORMED ON AN OUTPATIENT BASIS.

Another important cause is constant exposure to sunlight. Some people develop cataracts early in life, and some are born with the condition.

Whatever the cause, since the invention of cataract surgery, it is considered curable and in the developed world, only a minimal percentage of sufferers ultimately go blind. In the developing world, cataract is still the leading cause of blindness. While treatment is available in almost all countries, many people can’t be treated due to lack of funds.

SINCE JUNE 2007, LFCT FIGHTING AGAINST CATARACT-INDUCED BLINDNESS.

Becoming blind always means going from being a productive member of a family & a community to being a burden, someone who makes everyone’s life more difficult.

When the elderly become blind, their children have to take care of them and spend part of their income on them instead of benefiting from the elderly person’s help and support.

When children are born with an eye disease that will eventually result in blindness, their future is bleak.

The leading cause of blindness worldwide is cataract, a condition that can easily be cured by performing uncomplicated surgery. However, in poorer countries most patients are unable to pay for treatment & become blind needlessly. Perhaps it can be said that in those countries, poverty is the leading cause of blindness.

IMAGINE YOU WERE A FATHER OF TWO WONDERFUL, INTELLIGENT CHILDREN, A GIRL AND A BOY, AGED FIVE AND SIX.