On November 26th, 2012, a team from Barnet Dulaney Perkins Eye Center left for Baligeria, India in hopes to bring vision back to over 250 tribal people from West Bengal and Odisha areas by performing free cataract surgeries.
“It was all-in-all an amazing experience. Although I was born in the US, my family background is from India and so when an opportunity presented itself to perform a mission there I was eager to go. I have visited India for family several times, but I have never gone for a medical mission and also I had never been to the region of India that our mission was located (a town near Calcutta).” Neil Atodaria, MD
Our team of doctors and staff arrived to a small orphanage where we set up our operating room. In the course of less than a week, two surgeons performed 198 cataract surgeries. We were overwhelmed by the amount of blindness that was prevalent and how dense the cataracts were. There, unfortunately, was an endless supply of patients and eventually we had to stop since we ran out of supplies. There were so many that needed help. We truly hope all of these patients will do well with our short encounter. We acknowledge and extend a special thank you to everyone on our team who participated in this mission. The amount of work, planning, and behind-the-scenes preparation that is required for such a trip takes years and would not have been possible without the selfless acts of many remarkable people.
“This was truly an amazing trip, and I am quite proud of the people I work with and our company for supporting the opportunity to make a difference in these peoples lives. I feel incredibly humbled that we could provide some desperately needed help. The reward of being able to help those less fortunate was tremendously worthwhile; and while there were many people who were thanking us for the services we were able to provide, my response to them is simple … THANK YOU!” Neil Atodaria, MD