On November 10, 2004, Drs. Jerre and John Freeman, and Linda Taylor, RN traveled to Acapulco, Mexico to participate in a seminar sponsored by the Ophthalmology Society of the State of Guerrero, World Cataract Foundation Mexico, A.C. and Memphis Eye and Cataract Associates. Drs. Jerre and John Freeman lectured on Modern Cataract Surgery (Phacoemulsification) Techniques – Impact on the World Cataract Blind. They also performed cataract surgery at the Centro Estatal de Oftalmologia.

The remaining medical mission team arrived in Acapulco on November 13, 2004. Dr. Jerre Freeman and Linda Taylor joined them and traveled by bus to Ometepec, Guerrero, Mexico. Dr. Jerre Freeman has been leading mission trips to Ometepec since 1970. As in previous years, the people were lined up waiting for us. Our thirty-six member team screened an estimated 1,540 people throughout the week and performed 452 surgical procedures: 159 cataracts, 153 pterygiums, 8 plastics, 21 strabismus, and 111 YAG Laser procedures. Our optical team dispensed 1,350 reading, prescription, and sunglasses. The people are very humble and appreciative.

Nigel Haydu, a Canadian working with the group, Caminamos Juntos Para Saolud y Desarrollo, A.C. (they are working to improve health and sanitary conditions in Tlapmacazapa) brought ten patients to be screened. They traveled by bus two days to reach Ometepec. Eight received free operations to restore their vision. The morning they left to go home, one of the men came over to Dr. Viet Ho, shook his hand, and said, "I'll never forget you." It was very rewarding to help others from so far away.

Government officials recognized the ophthalmologists in the state of Guerrero in February 2004 for being # 1 in treating more blind poor than any other state in Mexico. WCF's work in Ometepec helped them reach the numbers necessary to receive this award. Guerrero government officials, Mexican ophthalmologists, and WCF are working together to eliminate cataract blindness in the state of Guerrero.

In January, Dr. John Van Dyck will travel down the Sepik River to Hauna Village in Papua New Guinea to operate on the blind poor. He will be joining Dr. Louis Carter's medical mission. This will be WCF’s fifth year to sponsor an ophthalmologist to go to Papua New Guinea. In February, WCF will be sending a small team to Ometepec for follow-up care from patients in November and to provide additional free surgeries.

Following is an article written by Julia Willhite describing the Ometepec trip. This was Julia's first time to participate in a World Cataract Foundation mission.

The first thing you notice are the people. Hundreds of them line the courtyard of the hospital, waiting in the stifling tropical heat. The government has issued 1500 numbered chances and it seems that all of them are there that day.

Some have traveled for days on foot. Others have sold their livestock or valued belongings to finance the trip. Most of them have waited a year to make the trip and are all there for the same thing – the gift of sight.

The people are poor, humble, simple folk; old and young and all ages in between. They are infinitely patient, seemingly unfazed by the hours to takes to get examined, diagnosed and possibly helped. Men with dusty feet and crumpled straw hats; women wearing the traditional lace ribbonned dress; barefoot children with shy smiles; a 10-year old with his blind grandparents.

Thirty-six volunteers have come together to take one step closer to the seemingly impossible – a cataract free state in Guerrero, Mexico. Most are ophthalmic surgeons, nurses, opticians, assistants and interns. Some, like me, are translators or government workers. All have given up time with their families and businesses and personally funded the trip to touch hundreds of lives.

Every morning, dozens of patients crowd the hospital veranda, waiting to be examined, evaluated, hoping for the miracle. The doctors walk among them, looking and diagnosing on the spot. In some cases their cataracts and strabismus (crossed eyes) are advanced - some to the point of no return. But many can be helped.

Most of those that need surgery do not get general anesthesia; their local anesthetic is given in the hospital hallway as they wait to be called. The few that do get it walk themselves into the OR holding their IV, clutching the pieces of paper that give a diagnosis. Because they have to be examined post surgery, those that have come a long way sleep overnight on the floor of the same porch where they were evaluated. No mats, no pillows, no complaints.

There is no air conditioning in the operating room or anyplace else for that matter and no one frets - not the gowned patients, nor the surgical staff with sweat-soaked scrubs. We pause only for lunch and return to face the afternoon list. Every day we have to turn away people who beg to be seen but cannot be scheduled. Their sadness and desperation break our hearts every time we do so.

We'll remember all of them but there are some that stand out for me: The young mother who is able to see her child for the first time after surgery. The teenager who has quit going to school because his eyes were disfigured, but now can go. The beautiful young woman who says she is "broken" and no one will marry her unless we help her. The elderly couple that walked for days to be there. The sweet 4-year old with the beaming smile and severely crossed eyes.

In return, we get gifts of gratitude. Not just words and handshakes and hugs but also coconuts, baked bread, beautifully embroidered clothing in the region's traditional style and handmade jewelry, decorative pens. Almost always the recipient was humbled by the gestures of gratitude. I know I was.

A week later we had run out of time and supplies and we packed up knowing that even though we couldn't help everyone, we had made a significant impact. Our thirty-six member team screened an estimated 1,540 people and performed 452 surgical procedures. Our optical team dispensed 1,350 reading, prescription, and sunglasses. The experience had been life-changing and emotionally draining for both patient and healer, but the value of our work was immeasurable.

So we returned to the States and our much-missed air conditioning, hot showers, families and jobs but I knew I would never be the same again. Now I am more grateful, more patient, more sympathetic and more accepting. It was a challenge for me not just linguistically but physically and emotionally, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

No mats, no pillows, no complaints. I'm going to remember that.

An estimated 500 people were eagerly awaiting the team's arrival. Dr. Ariel Ramirez left his busy practice in Acapulco to travel to Ometepec with three assistants, and performed 33 cataracts surgeries. Dr. Ramirez, President of WCF Mexico is devoted to the "Guerrero: Let There Be Light" Project. Dr. Howard Beale's plastic and pterygiums team performed 179 surgeries. Dr. Beale said, "The need is so great, we performed twice as many surgeries as last spring and have the potential of doubling the amount next year." He complimented his team, "I'm indebted to Luke Driscoll for his translating skills, Linda Storey for her efficient surgical skills, and to Josie Young for her organizational skills and coordinating each day's events to run so smoothly.

They came, hundreds of the poorest of the poor, women with children who couldn't see, men blinded by cataracts hardened by the harsh Mexican sun. Some had walked for days through the rough hills to the Hospital de la Aistad and the Hospital Regional of Ometepec in the southeastern part of Mexico at the edge of the state of Guerrero. They came to be helped by the World Cataract Foundation's international medical team in the fall of 2003. For nine days an estimated 2,300 people were helped to see. Doctors from U.S., Spain, and Mexico performed 356 eye surgeries: 151 cataracts, 143 pterygiums, 13 strabismus, 12 plastic surgeries, and 37 YAG lasers. The optical team provided eyeglasses and sunglasses to all that needed them. The Bolle Sunglass company donated over 300 sunglasses for our post op patients.

For the first time in the 33-year history of these missions to Ometepec the ophthalmologists were able to add laser surgery thanks to the generous loan of a YAG Laser machine by Eyesight Technologies of Cordova, Tennessee.

the need for eye care in this part of Mexico is so great that every November some who need treatment have to be turned away. By sending a second team in the spring we can attend to many of them. This year we were able to to dust that. Seven specialists from the U.S. joined by two from Acapulco provided follow-up care from our November trip and performed more sight-saving surgeries. 35 cataracts were removed, and 64 pterygiums and plastics were provided.