Focus on Bihar - West Champaran
The DSN eye hospital- Doctor Siddiqui Netralaya, Narkatiganj.
A group of committed locals - the LEAF Trust - established this small community eye hospital. Its catchment area is along the Indo-Nepalese border and includes the famous Valmiki tiger sanctuary. The DSN team hold screening camps in the sanctuary and are sometimes surprised by a tiger breaking its nocturnal habit.
These patients are amongst the poorest and most neglected in Bihar. We have never seen such a high percentage of ‘one eyed’ patients - patients presenting to the DSN with irreversible blindness in one eye, either from trauma that has been treated by quack doctors, or from botched surgery elsewhere.
The three villagers (pictured opposite) were all irreversibly blind in one eye, then blinded by cataract in their once ‘good’ eye. Dr Sabit Hassan at the DSN did their surgery.
When they had their eye pads removed the morning after, they discovered that they were all from the same village!
WIth excellent post-operative vision, they walked home together.
