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One Hundred Blind Receive Sight

The miracle of sight—where have more than 100 blind people received their sight in just nine days?  On Ebeye Island, a crowded 80 acre speck in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

It’s unheard of in our country for people to go for years without any access to an eye physician. On Ebeye, a tiny atoll, in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, many go without access to eye care, even if it means that they go blind. This is where a Canvasback Missions team of medical specialists provided help to the 12,000 people who are crowded onto an island that is just ¼ mile wide and one mile long.

The children of Ebeye have no trees to climb and there is no shade from the harsh tropical sun.  Thousands of miles of ocean keep the residents marginalized in their understanding of the outside world.  Their world is experienced from a faded rainbow of tin and plywood houses packed together on the narrow low-lying coral island.  Except for a new hospital built with US funds, many people are impoverished and extremely underserved. 

The US Army Base on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands is just across the lagoon from Ebeye Island. The Army allows the Canvasback volunteer medical teams to access the base from the military airport.  They also provide Canvasback doctors with transportation to Ebeye aboard an Army landing craft rigged with a tarpaulin to shade the painted wooden benches on the cargo deck.

This last January and February, the highly efficient Canvasback Ophthalmology team broke a Canvasback record by performing 192 eye surgeries in nine days.  Doctors Paul Chung of Washington State and Charles Ahn from Illinois worked steadily with their assistants in surgery while Alex Archibald, OD (medical optometrist) from Idaho supervised patients in pre and post-op.  They removed hard opaque cataracts and inserted new lenses in their place. Most of the patients were either blind or nearly blind when the surgeries began. However; when the eye patches were removed, tears of joy and exclamations of surprise like “Praise God” were common.  Patients who were led into the hospital walked out of the hospital unassisted.  “For every person who received their sight, two lives were changed, the patient and the child who had been their guide,” says Jamie Spence, Canvasback Founder.

Even though an ocean container had been packed to the ceiling and sent out on a Matson ship, they performed so many surgeries that more supplies had to be flown in.

Four hundred other people received improved vision from eye glasses that were donated by Northwest Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center in Olympia, WA. and by EYSEE of Chicago, Il.   Many had been unable to read for many years.  An elderly woman had tears in her eyes when she realized that she could read the Bible that we placed in her lap.

In addition to ophthalmology, four other Canvasback specialty teams provided services in orthopedics, dentistry, cardiology and radiology.  Alan Mohang had his right knee replaced by the team in 2007.  This year, Mohang had a triple blessing.  He was given his eyesight back when the team performed cataract surgery on both of his eyes and then replaced the left knee. 

The teams provided a combined value of services (Based upon Medicare rates) of $1,274,461 and achieved a return on investment of 2,149%.  Long before the five teams completed their work on Ebeye in February of 2010, preparations were well under way to send five more teams to Yap Island and another ophthalmology team to Chuuk Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. 

The response from the people of Ebeye was simply: “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for giving us back our eyes and for giving us the things of life.”

Matthew 20:34 “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.”
 

   

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