Photo By Sgt. Alejandro Smith-Antuna | A local woman has her eyes scanned by an autorefractor to help determine a possible...... read more read more
ZACAPA, Guatemala – A stream of patients continued through one of the small classrooms of Caseria Los Limones that served as the optometry clinic for the Medical Readiness Training Exercise (MEDRETE) as part of the humanitarian aid mission Operation Beyond the Horizon.
A key element of this mission is the potential for a variety of medical staffs to collectively address regional medical concerns and develop effective, economical solutions that can be used throughout the area. The optometry section of the MEDRETE site at Los Limones was seeing approximately 150 patients a day.
“It’s definitely different from being in the states,” said Senior Airmen Tanis Anderson, a flight medicine technician with the 22nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron, “many of the locals are out in the sun without hats or sunglasses and this can have a damaging effect on the eyes. It’s not something we see typically in the states. Also, we see a lot more dehydration here which can affect the eyes more than you would expect.”
“We see a lot of dry eye. The population is very dehydrated and the environment is very dusty and dirty. They [the locals] are all very dry eyed and we end up dispensing a lot of artificial tears,” Air Force Maj. Luanne Danes, an optometrist from Keesler Air Force Base, observed. “We’re offering pretty basic care here, it’s essentially ‘Do you need glasses?’ ‘Do your eyes hurt?’ and then to determine if we can fix them.”
A large majority of the glasses donated came from several Lions Clubs from the United States. The optometry clinic here carried a variety of over the counter reading glasses and pre-owned prescription glasses, which were repaired and cleaned by the Lions club.
Before receiving glasses, patients would take a series of tests to determine what kind of glasses they needed.
“First I take a brief history from the patient and administer a Visual Acuity test before sending them to the Docs,” Anderson said, “This helps figure out if they are near or far sighted. After that the doctor will see them.”
A Visual Acuity test assesses patients’ eyes to see how well they see without glasses using an eye chart.
“After receiving a patient,” Danes said, “I’ll usually administer a test with an autorefractor, which is a computerized machine that gives us kind of an idea of what the patient needs prescription-wise. It’s not typically something I’d use back home. Based on our collective experience we take in factors such as age and the cumulative test results to give them the best fit for glasses.”
In regards to his experience Anderson said, “I’m loving it! It’s a great opportunity to gain experience and see things you don’t normally get to see back home. Many of the host nation military and people help out any way they can.”
“The experience so far has been great!” Danes stated. “ I love doing these missions. This is my eighth one so far. One of the greatest feelings I get while doing this is when a patient puts on glasses … and actually sees clearly for the first time.”
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.29.2014 20:18 |
| Story ID: | 128140 |
| Location: | ZACAPA, GT |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, A vision for the future, by SGT Alejandro Smith-Antuna, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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