Feb 24, 2008
Optometrist and daughter from Wilton provide eye care in Nicaragua
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Dr. Abby Quinn of Nod Hill Road, an optometrist at Wilton Family Eye Care at 237 Danbury Road, started going to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, to provide eye care in 2003. She has been going annually ever since. In 2004, her daughter Olivia, a Wilton High School junior, started accompanying her and just received a Five-Year Award for “Dedicated Volunteer Services.”
The program is sponsored by VOSH Connecticut, part of the international organization Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity whose mission is to supply eyeglasses and provide medication when needed. “The need for eye care in underdeveloped countries where wages may be $1 a day is overwhelming,” according to the group’s Web site. “Our objective is to improve people’s vision so they can be more productive and enjoy a better quality of life.”
Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in the hemisphere (the first is Haiti.) “It’s not unusual for us to treat 2,500 people in four days, from infants to some in their 90’s and many have never had their vision tested,” Dr. Quinn said. The town, on the Pacific coast, south of Managua, is one of the poorest, with no hospital and one doctor. Children travel six hours daily to go to school.
“Many of the people we see don’t even know what’s wrong. There are children who’ve been sitting as close as they can to the blackboard because they need eyeglasses, children who’ve been considered stupid because they can’t keep up with others, until they receive a pair of eyeglasses,” said Dr. Quinn. “There are older people who’ve had poor vision all their life, who put on a pair of eyeglasses and consider it a miracle.”
“We go as a team, about 25 of us, five or six doctors, two opticians, optometry students, translators and three or four administrators. We work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” said Dr. Quinn. “The biggest problem is the need for eyeglasses. They have no way to get them.”
The group travels with boxes and boxes of donated eyeglasses that have been sorted by prescription strength so they can be distributed, as closely as possible, with the correct lenses and proper fit. That’s Olivia’s job and it’s a challenging one. There are millions of prescription combinations.
“Most of these people have had no eye care at all. There are many cataracts because people living near the equator tend to get them early,” said Dr. Quinn. “We’re not surgeons, so when we see the need for surgery, we inform the local doctor, who follows through with the case.”
Dr. Quinn also sees a lot of glaucoma. “This can be stabilized with medication but because there are no symptoms, it’s hard to make them understand that if they don’t take their medicine they can go blind. We give them enough medicine for a year and another year’s worth when we return.”
There is a special need for children’s glasses, she said. “Most of the glasses we have are too large for children. We have had children’s glasses made in the USA and shipped, but we don’t know if they actually get them.”
“We work the old- fashioned way, with hand held instruments, simple eye charts, to do visual acuity tests and refraction exams. Advanced optical equipment doesn’t travel well, so we do what we can. When we ask someone to read the chart, it isn’t unusual for him to ask ‘What chart?’”
Olivia said she’s “not sure,” if she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. “I know I want to do something in the medical field, perhaps nursing. I’ve learned a lot about optometry, but I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do.”
Mother and daughter have many stories to tell. A taxi driver who never had a pair of glasses was given a pair that he really needed. When Dr. Quinn happened to see him driving his taxi, he wasn’t wearing them. “He patted his pocket and told me he’s saving them for when his eyes get really bad.”
“A father of two daughters came to us, with one daughter who was pathologically near-sighted without the help of glasses. Why didn’t he bring both girls? Because after the sixth grade, uniforms cost money and he was only going to be able to send one of his daughters to continue school.”
The first year Olivia joined her mother, they braved tarantulas, scorpions and bug infestations, but since then the government has cleaned up the town and is trying to turn it into a resort destination, so things are much better.
Dr. Quinn, who attended the Pennsylvania School of Optometry, the largest in the nation, said the time she spends in Nicaragua is her favorite week of the year.
“Optometry is a portable profession,” she says. “We can help lots of people.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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