Making the Blind See in Abia

Many people that lost their sights are being saved from living the rest of their lives in the dark. Charles Ajunwa and Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo report

It was a bright new world for Mrs. Esther Nduka when she regained her sight six months after she became blind in both eyes. “I was completely blind; I never knew I would ever see with my eyes again in this world,” she told THISDAY at her home in Umuahia.

Her vision was fully restored not by miraculous happenstance as was the case with the biblical blind Bartimaeus but a high-tech eye surgery performed at Anya Specialist Eye Clinic, located at Ohafia Street Umuahia, Abia State.

Mrs. Nduka was a beneficiary of the Ochendo Free Eye Surgery Programme of Senator Theodore Orji through which hundreds of persons have been brought back from the world of darkness to the world of sunshine and colour.

Mrs. Nduka was not born blind. She had been living a very active life when suddenly darkness enveloped her. She said that her two eyes blacked out after the death of her 19-year-old son, Obinna Nduka. The distraught mother said that light went out of her eyes after weeping profusely over her deceased son. She believed her eyes went blank following the torrents of tears she had shed while mourning the deceased son.

But such a belief has no medical or scientific foundation. A consultant Ophthalmologist and Phaco surgeon, Dr. Anya Kalu, who is the proprietor of Anya Specialist Eye Clinic, explained that Mrs. Nduka could have started her journey to blindness over time without actually knowing exactly when it started as cataracts don’t happen overnight but it comes gradually.

“It’s difficult to remember when actually the blindness started that she couldn’t see at all. Blindness and cataract doesn’t happen just over night. It’s gradual until suddenly you cannot see any more. So because of her condition her children only bring her out to collect the sun, greet people and when they come back from work they take her back into the house,” Anya said.

The blindness gave room for other health problems and further compounded the woes of the bereaved woman. A hitherto active person was forced into a sedentary lifestyle. According to Anya, the blind woman started adding weight and developed severe joint pains hence walking became a problem. In her pain and darkness Mrs. Nduka was just helpless as she was unable to witness the burial of her teenage son. “She was just in darkness while her son was being buried in May this year. That was the most painful thing to her,” said Anya.

Her son-in-law, Mr. Emmanuel Emeka Anyanwu, said that “sudden” blindness of his mother-in-law created a whole lot of inconveniences not only for her but for the people around her. “It was not easy for somebody who was doing everything for herself to just lose her freedom and start depending on other people to survive.”

It was indeed a double tragedy for Mrs. Nduka. After crying about losing her beloved son, she started another round of shedding tears. This time, she was crying for divine intervention to enable her to regain her lost sight. Narrating her condition after going blind, she said she was a pitiful sight. “It was as if my world was turned upside down. I depended on my daughter for everything. I could hardly do anything for myself,” she recalled. God answered her tearful prayers and sent help. Dr Anya, who has been deeply involved in the eye care programme of Senator Orji, brought his attention to the plight of the blind woman. The Abia Central Senator promptly authorised Anya to proceed with the surgery and other medical care needed to restore sight to the visually impaired woman.

“That is how Senator T.A. Orji gave back a woman who was nearly out of this world, hope, joy. It was evident on her face and you could see the smile on her face each time she heard my voice and I reminded her she is a lucky woman. After the successful Phacoemulsification cataract operation (eye surgery) a new world of brightness was beheld by Madam Nduka after six months of gloom. She was full of smiles as she saw her daughter and caregiver, Mrs. Florence Chiamaka Anyanwu, her doctor and the entire environment,” Anya explained.

It was a 300 degree turnaround for a woman who had resigned herself to fate, thinking she had been condemned to the clutches of blindness for the rest of her life. She could indeed not believe her eyes. She told THISDAY at her home that she was short of adequate words to thank Senator Orji for giving her back her lost eyes. The highly appreciative woman poured out her heart praying and blessing the former Abia governor. “It will go well with Ochendo. God will bless him for me. He will never be disappointed,” she went on and on. “I was completely blind; I never knew I would ever see with my eyes again.”

Anya noted that the transformation in the blind woman was evident after the surgery. He said: “Madam Esther Nduka was just unfortunate in the first place by going blind. Seeing her today you will know that she is a smart woman. The first day I saw her after surgery she was not using a walking stick. This was the same woman that couldn’t walk without a walking stick; she started walking by herself and her weight has reduced as she now walks about because we did PhacoEmulsification surgery which is called the laser surgery.

“She is back to her life, she even comes for check up by herself and she makes sure that her medications which we gave her in large volume are still with her. And because she did an operation in both eyes she is likely going to need more medications but as for the wound healing is exceptional. If you don’t see you may never believe,” Anya explained.

After the successful eye surgery, Anyanwu acknowledged that his mother in-law is now less of a burden as she can now see and do for herself those things that she depended on others to do for her during the period her life was enveloped in darkness.

So many others have, like Mrs. Nduka, regained their visions courtesy of the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme. The case of a 14-year-old, who had to stop going to school when her eyes failed her was equally touching. Anya narrated how Senator Orji came to her rescue and gave the girl her sight after sponsoring her surgery for free.

“It was a case of an unfortunate 14-year-old female. She just discovered that she was not seeing in both eyes and by the time we did a normal laboratory test, we discovered that her sugar was level 572. If you know what 572 sugar levels means in a 14-year-old child – it’s enough to kill anybody. While we now made further enquiries we discovered that a year before that time the mother died of kidney failure from complications of diabetes. So diabetes was running in the family and as a young 14-year-old she got diabetes without knowing,” he said.

To save the teenager from her blindness and life threatening sugar level, Anya immediately put a phone call to Senator Orji and told him about the condition of the teenage girl and the need to save her. He got a positive answer instantly because “each time you pick up a phone and call the Senator concerning free eye surgery the answer is always ‘Yes, go ahead and let me know the details’. “So, we took the child to the theatre and knowing full well her condition we invited other specialists to help us bring the sugar down, while other specialists were on standby to help us in case we had any challenges.”

According to Anya, it was “a multi-specialists approach” that was used in treating the girl. After the surgery the patient was readmitted for three more days to make sure that the sugar doesn’t go up high. But then the Abia Central Senator had to spend nearly N100,000 in another clinic just to make sure we maintain the sugar level down. Good enough the intervention worked well for the girl,” Anya announced the good result with gusto, saying, “the girl that was not seeing, started seeing in both eyes and she can now understand the diabetes more, she can now help herself with her medications. She can now go back to school. So, let’s just say what befell her mum (kidney failure) may not befell her because she is now more knowledgeable and educated about managing diabetes.”

Anya went on and on telling stories of people who went blind and were helpless to seek medical care before Ochendo intervened. The stories evoked varying degrees of pity. There was a case of a mother and her daughter in her early teens, and both were blind and poor. According to him, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), which was scouting for people to assist, found a blind girl who was presumed to be eight years old. She was hawking by the road side with her equally blind mother. “Eight years was what we were told but I finally discovered that the child was more than eight years,” Anya narrated. “The child was in the neighbourhood of 10-12 years. She was blind in both eyes and the mother was also blind in both eyes. They usually sit by the roadside selling whosoever cares to buy and people used to patronise them out of pity.”

When the NGO people brought the blind mother and child to Anya’s clinic they discovered that the financial resources required to solve their visual impairments was beyond their reach. “The NGO said their problem was that they don’t have funds to foot the bills and I told them they shouldn’t worry. That I will notify someone I know that will do the job and they asked me who? I mentioned Papa Ukwu. Immediately, I picked my phone and sent a message – permission to proceed Sir? It didn’t take up to two hours. I got a reply ‘permission granted’. So we prepared the child for surgery immediately, and did surgery in both eyes.

“All these three people I mentioned had surgery for them in both eyes. And this girl now I’m told has gone back to school, she is no longer selling from morning to night. Of course, I expect her to be assisting in family business but the fact that she has gone back to school is my joy. She now comes for her check up by herself. So who will not be proud of Senator T.A.Orji? Who will not say ‘Thank You’ to Senator T.A.Orji? He has done so much for us in eye care,” Anya said.

Orji’s interest in eye care started when he was the governor of Abia. It happened that when he had an eye problem he travelled overseas for medical attention. The hi-tech medical care he received created a huge impression on him. With his eyes fully functioning very well to his satisfaction the then governor decided that the best thing to do was to domesticate the hi-tech eye treatment he had received. On return from the foreign medical trip Ochendo immediately initiated plans to make available in Umuahia the hi-tech eye treatment popularly known as laser method. That was how the Ophthalmology Clinic was built and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities at the Abia State Specialist Hospital Umuahia. According to Anya, it was “the first ever standard eye clinic in Abia.”

Even after he left office in 2015, Orji still sustained his interest in eye care and healthcare in general did not wane. He designed and instituted his own programme – The Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme through which people, especially the underprivileged, could have access to quality eye care services without financial cost. Anya, who has been deeply involved in the design and implementation of the programme, said that modifications were introduced at each stage to include other necessities. “So, we have the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme which he signed on Tuesday, October 17, 2017, and he mandated me to proceed on training in Phacoemulsification Cataract Surgery. When we mention Phacoemulsification surgery people mistakenly call it laser cataract surgery but it’s Phacoemulsification cataract surgery where the machine does the surgery.”

Anya proudly refers to himself as the first beneficiary of the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme. This is because he was sponsored overseas by Orji to obtain the knowledge on the use of the Phacoemulsification machine in eye surgery. The training took Anya to Bangladesh. According to Anya, the Abia Central Senator “insisted on quality and high level manpower.”

He quoted the Senator to have told him, ‘If we don’t train highly trained manpower, any project you start will crumble before you no matter how much you invest in it’.

So the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme kicked off on January 6, 2018 after Anya returned to the country After his training programme. He recalled that the Senator had emphasised on three things at the commencement of the programme that strengthened his faith in the eye care programme.

“One, he reassured me that this programme will be sustainable. Two, make plans that will be a five-year project of Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme between January 2018 to December 2022. Three, even after the project is over make a plan to have consistent continuous low cost services. In that process we can say that the project has succeeded.”

The eye surgery project was divided into three phases. Explaining the idea behind phasing the programme Anya said, “Phase one is to test run logistics, to test run sustainability, to test run feasibility of this project. Will it even work? He gave us three months to report back on phase one. Phase one was simple, let the patients only pay for materials that will be used in surgery and that includes everybody in Abia Central Senatorial District. Everybody in Abia South and Abia North Senatorial zones, everybody in the South-east and everybody in Nigeria. So, as far as you are a human being Ochendo says help the person and that was why he told us whatever good you must do, do it. It might be coming back to you later on. So by the end of March 2018, it was obvious that the project called Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme would be sustainable.”

With the success recorded in the first phase of the eye surgery project, Anya noted that it became “obvious that low cost eye surgery would be feasible in Abia State and it was certain that we can have a programme that will last five good years.”

He further stated that even if the sponsor chose to wind down the programme after its five-year lifespan “the gains will be maintained in years to come.”

On April 1, 2018 the implementation of phase two of the programme commenced. “We were authorised to now start phase two of the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme, which is now, as expected, limited to those of his Abia Central Senatorial zone whereby he gives free eye surgeries.” This gesture has been fully embraced by the constituents of Senator Orji. According to Anya, the beneficiaries “are in their thousands” just like in phase one. “I have lost count,” he said. “I’m happy that we have done so much in phase one and everybody has access to low cost surgeries and hi-tech low cost surgeries.”

The beneficiaries of the Ochendo Free Eye Surgery Programme have every reason to be eternally grateful to Senator Orji. Only the blind can fully appreciate what it means to lose vision. The condition becomes even worse if the blindness is reversible but the victims have no access to medical care due to the absence of financial resources. But the financial burden is automatically lifted off the shoulders of beneficiaries.

According to Anya, hi-tech cataract surgery in Lagos ranges from N500,000 to about N1.5m. While Orji’s constituents in Abia Central, who are the sole beneficiaries of phase two of the programme, access the hi-tech eye surgery at no cost as there is a minimal difference for the beneficiaries under phase two, which is open to the general public.

“But under the Senator T.A.Orji Eye Surgery Programme you pay only N68,500,” said Anya. “Tests, scans and other investigations you will do if it were in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt you might be spending N100,000 to N150,000 but under the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme the highest you will spend is about N30,000. We give you medications that will last you for one month if you use them carefully and that is all included in the Senator T.A.Orji Eye Surgery project. So you now see the reason why I say sustainable low cost hi-tech eye programme and the outcome speaks for itself. That is phase one.”

Like every other plan and activities, the smooth running of the Ochendo Eye Surgery Programme was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Anya regretted that the challenge posed by COVID-19 induced lockdown had altered plans to escalate the free cataract surgery programme.

“At the beginning of 2020 the Senator had asked us to prepare for 100 free surgeries. In fact, the plans were at advanced stages. The COVID-19 hit us hard and mass gathering was prohibited and as I speak mass gathering has not been lifted. So we have not had that pleasure of giving massive free cataract eye surgeries. In fact, the Senator has authorised that the low cost should not be tampered with to let people afford it.”

Anya said that his experience from being involved in the Ochendo Eye Surgery project has revealed to him that while some people could not afford quality eye care services there are a whole lot of people that have the resources but could not access quality eye care services because the facilities and manpower were hitherto not available in Abia.

“Our people are only looking for where to access quality eye care services and that is where I’m very proud to say ‘Thank You’ to Senator T.A.Orji for giving us an opportunity to have quality eye care. If he didn’t train me, I’m not sure there will be quality. People would have been going with their millions to Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, but now we do the quality eye surgery here in Abia and people are happy.”

To sustain the supply of manpower in the hi-tech eye care project there is phase three of the Ochendo project which requires training of other medical personnel. In fact, Anya said that Orji had insisted that phase three must be implemented and directed him to train others since he had been trained. A training institute has therefore been set up.

In appreciation of his benefactor, Anya said that he named the facility Senator T.A.Orji Eye Surgery Training Institute “to immortalise the name of the man who has invested his life in the betterment of the life of others in prevention and elimination of blindness in Abia State.”

For the time being, the institute trains staff sent by institutions that have accreditation.