By V. Sivaji
It is said that the greatest gift God ever gave mankind is the gift of sight.
In keeping with the proverb, the Cataract Surgery Carnival 2024 (CARE’ 24) organised by the Ophthalmology Department of the Penang General Hospital held from August 2 to 4, 2024 was a resounding success.
They managed to carry out 78 cataract operations and restore the sight of mainly from the poor and neglected community (PeKA B40) and senior citizens from nursing homes.
The programme was supported by two partners, namely, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Merits Society Malaysia and the Masmeyer Foundation.
Representing Tzu Chi was its Northern Region commissioner, Dato Khoo Boo Leong, while Masmeter was represented by its managing director, Dato BK Choo.
The Penang General Hospital was represented by its director Dr Goh Hin Kwang, Dr Ang Ee Ling, head of the Ophthalmology Department and their able team members.
In his address, Khoo said that having the cataract surgery will make a big difference to the vision of the patients, giving them a quality of life especially those from the B40 group and senior citizens in various nursing homes.
“We send our blessings for a speedy recovery to those patients who will be receiving cataract surgery during this Carnival”, added Khoo.
In thanking the two generous donors, Dr Goh added that to expand the programme they are also looking into mobile screening where they can go to nursing homes and carry out initial assessment of the patients.
“Once the patients are ready for their operation we will bring them over to the hospital to carry out the operations”, he said.
In the meantime, Dr Ang added that they are fortunate they have charity organisations who are willing to collaborate with them to carry out this programme.
“A total of 78 cataract operations were carried out over the past three days. Although we had allocated some 120 lenses, some of the operations had to be deferred due to various complications. Most of the patients were from the island and mainland mainly from old folks homes.
The oldest patient was 84-years-old. From our end, more than 50 staff, including specialists and other support teams were involved in this programme”, she added.
Kudos to Penang General Hospital team, Buddhist Tzu Chi Merits Society Malaysia and the Masmeyer Foundation for the commendable corporate social responsibility (CSR) project.
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