MONROE - About 1,000 prescription and non-prescription eyeglasses, collected by the Monroe Lions Club and Monroe Clinic, will be in West Africa in November.
The used glasses are part of the donated medical equipment and supplies for use by a team of vision specialists attached to the Global Church Planting Partners, headquartered in Las Vegas.
Heading up the two-week trip to Ivory Coast are Hoyt Lovelace, Ph.D., president of the organization, and his wife, Dr. Kimberly Lovelace, an ophthalmologist at Monroe Clinic who specializes in pediatric ophthalmology.
"The majority of blindness there - or what is considered blindness - can be cured with glasses," she said.
Optometrists on the team do most of the vision screening and eyeglass fittings. Sometimes a pair of glasses doesn't perfectly correct a patient's problem, but "close is better than nothing," Lovelace noted.
Patients identified with severe physical problems of the eye are shifted to Lovelace's area of expertise. She deals with advanced problems that glasses can't correct - crossed or turned out eyes, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts and pterygium, a common condition affecting people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Pterygium causes a growth of fleshy tissue over the white of the eye that can be removed.
The team uses an old Lions Club vision and medical facility, probably abandoned during past wars in the area, that is not equipped.
Lovelace has at least 60 surgical patients lined up for November, and she will take with her any equipment, tools and supplies she needs for specialized surgeries. The patients were identified with their surgical needs during clinic assessments in April, the last time the team was there.
In April, Lovelace did 42 surgeries in four days on patients identified in November 2013.
Last November, the team of 15 providers, including three optometrists and Lovelace as the only ophthalmologist, saw 650 patients in the clinic in five days. Of the 500 pairs of glasses the team took with them, 400 were used.
Patients are of all ages, Lovelace said, and come from miles around, once the word is out that the medical care is available. Entire families, with children in tow, will guide their elderly members to the clinic. The team also moves from village to village to do clinics, but people follow them around the countryside, waiting for a chance to be treated.
One teenager did just that, Lovelace recalled, and she was glad he did. A soccer player, he suffered from an injury that caused extreme bulging of the eyeball. The young man lost his eye, but without surgery, the eye would have eventually become infected and caused additional medical problems, she said.
Hoyt Lovelace has been making the church-planting trips to Ivory Coast for about eight years. The medical and vision aspects of the mission began more recently, he said, after his wife finished her service in the Navy.
"The gratitude ... the people are so incredibly grateful," he said. "They don't get care or have care, while we talk about access to care.
"When we leave, they will come and see us off. They say, "I will give you half the road,' and what that means is the other half is for you to come back," he added.
Though the services of the team are free, patients will sometimes pay the team with chickens, goats, bananas and even peanuts, he said.
The team is headed to an area that is not plagued with Ebola virus, and villages are quarantined to prevent the spread, he added.
The mission trip is being supported with donations made through Monroe Lions Club; Monroe Clinic; Life Spring Church in Monroe; Island Community Church in Memphis; Surgical Eye Expedition (SEE) International of Santa Barbara, Calif.; manufacturers of medical equipment and supplies; and private individuals.
The used glasses are part of the donated medical equipment and supplies for use by a team of vision specialists attached to the Global Church Planting Partners, headquartered in Las Vegas.
Heading up the two-week trip to Ivory Coast are Hoyt Lovelace, Ph.D., president of the organization, and his wife, Dr. Kimberly Lovelace, an ophthalmologist at Monroe Clinic who specializes in pediatric ophthalmology.
"The majority of blindness there - or what is considered blindness - can be cured with glasses," she said.
Optometrists on the team do most of the vision screening and eyeglass fittings. Sometimes a pair of glasses doesn't perfectly correct a patient's problem, but "close is better than nothing," Lovelace noted.
Patients identified with severe physical problems of the eye are shifted to Lovelace's area of expertise. She deals with advanced problems that glasses can't correct - crossed or turned out eyes, glaucoma, diabetes, cataracts and pterygium, a common condition affecting people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Pterygium causes a growth of fleshy tissue over the white of the eye that can be removed.
The team uses an old Lions Club vision and medical facility, probably abandoned during past wars in the area, that is not equipped.
Lovelace has at least 60 surgical patients lined up for November, and she will take with her any equipment, tools and supplies she needs for specialized surgeries. The patients were identified with their surgical needs during clinic assessments in April, the last time the team was there.
In April, Lovelace did 42 surgeries in four days on patients identified in November 2013.
Last November, the team of 15 providers, including three optometrists and Lovelace as the only ophthalmologist, saw 650 patients in the clinic in five days. Of the 500 pairs of glasses the team took with them, 400 were used.
Patients are of all ages, Lovelace said, and come from miles around, once the word is out that the medical care is available. Entire families, with children in tow, will guide their elderly members to the clinic. The team also moves from village to village to do clinics, but people follow them around the countryside, waiting for a chance to be treated.
One teenager did just that, Lovelace recalled, and she was glad he did. A soccer player, he suffered from an injury that caused extreme bulging of the eyeball. The young man lost his eye, but without surgery, the eye would have eventually become infected and caused additional medical problems, she said.
Hoyt Lovelace has been making the church-planting trips to Ivory Coast for about eight years. The medical and vision aspects of the mission began more recently, he said, after his wife finished her service in the Navy.
"The gratitude ... the people are so incredibly grateful," he said. "They don't get care or have care, while we talk about access to care.
"When we leave, they will come and see us off. They say, "I will give you half the road,' and what that means is the other half is for you to come back," he added.
Though the services of the team are free, patients will sometimes pay the team with chickens, goats, bananas and even peanuts, he said.
The team is headed to an area that is not plagued with Ebola virus, and villages are quarantined to prevent the spread, he added.
The mission trip is being supported with donations made through Monroe Lions Club; Monroe Clinic; Life Spring Church in Monroe; Island Community Church in Memphis; Surgical Eye Expedition (SEE) International of Santa Barbara, Calif.; manufacturers of medical equipment and supplies; and private individuals.