Liberated from a ‘dark world’

-three seeing clearly after historic corneal grafts at GPH

For one farmer and a cane harvester, being able to see through both eyes again is a gift they will forever be grateful to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for. The men were among the first three persons to benefit from the country’s first corneal graft operation.

Mark Baird and Joel Franklin both 41 years had lost their sight while doing their jobs. For Baird, a farmer from North Ruimveldt, the return of his sight means that he can get back to what he likes doing: farming. “It real hard to get one eye sight and I praise the King now fuh get both eyes working now,” he said. “I feel aright now I feel real aright,” he added.

In August of this year, Baird said that he was on his farm clearing bamboo when one “lash me in me eye”. He said that it was difficult seeing through one eye. Franklin shared a similar sentiment. He lost sight in his right eye while cutting cane in March of this year. Franklin, a seasonal cane cutter with GuySuCo, said he was “cutting raw trash cane and get stick in the eye”.

The father of six is grateful that he has his full sight once again which will help him continue his job and watch his children grow up. “Without ya eye, you is a nobody. You just living in a dark, dark world. I gah thank the doctors them fuh what they do. I didn’t know they could bring back ya eye like what they do hey,” Franklin said.

Joel Franklin (left) and Mark Baird

The men underwent a procedure called Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK). The surgery was done by a visiting ophthalmologist, Dr. Chad Rostron, who is an anterior segment specialist from Moorfields Hospital in the United Kingdom, Dr George Norton, head of the Ophthalmology Department at the GPH, said.
Dr Rostron is engaged to an overseas-based Guyanese, Debra Prahalad.

Speaking on behalf of the doctor yesterday Prahalad said that this is her fiancé’s third visit to Guyana. She noted that he has an interest in the eye care systems here and so had met with Dr. Madan Rambarran of the GPH on his second visit.

Prahalad said that Dr Rostron is expected to perform two more corneal grafts before he leaves the country later this month.

She pointed out that there is potential in Guyana for eye surgeries of this nature to be done and expressed hope that the government will develop an eye bank in this country.

DALK surgery allows persons with “irreversible blindness” a chance to see again. Dr Norton explained that trauma to the eye ends in corneal infection which results in blindness. DALK “consists of removing damaged cornea and replacing it with a donor tissue from a cadaver or a corpse.”

Dr Norton said that in the surgeries that were done “all of the cornea was not removed, only the damaged part was removed and replaced.”