Life Stories Header
Click to Donate to CBM UK

Mary from Mangotchi

Mary is young and had been at school until just over a year ago.  Now she is totally blind.  The brittle undiagnosed Diabetes had metabolically robbed her of her sight in a matter of months.  Her sugar was so high when she came to Nkhoma, we had to spend 2 weeks controlling it even before it was safe to think of operating.

Mary with white diabetic cataracts

Mary with white diabetic cataracts - Photo: Roger Loguarro

With the help of the doctors in the general hospital, she did extremely well.  She felt much better, less tired, but was still blind.   Eventually after 12 days it was her time for surgery.

I felt very sorry for Mary, as she is so young and was doing well at school until relatively quickly her sight was lost.  She can barely move around now, and constantly needs help.  Of course school has been out of the question for her for the past year.

I don’t really see that many people with Diabetes in Malawi.

Meeting Mary on the waiting line

Meeting Mary on the waiting line

I was a bit scared when operating, as I wan’t sure how far advanced the diabetes in the eye was, but after the first operation all was well.

Half way there, and happy

Half way there, and happy

In the end a small miracle happened.  I was scared that the diabetes had not only resulted in cataracts, but had also affected the retina.  The surgery went very well, the Nkhoma team were awesome in their care, and Mary’s sight was totally restored.  I will try and visit her in her village near the south Lake Malawi lakeshore later this year, and we are helping her with her diabetic medications so she should be back at the hospital in a month or so for a check up as well.

I felt so thankful that Mary had found us, and we’d been able to help.  I really hope that her life carries on in the way she planned.  She was so excited to head home and celebrate.

Mary, ready to take go home to Lake Malawi, 3 hours drive away

Mary, ready to take go home to Lake Malawi, 3 hours drive away

I said goodbye to Mary on a Tuesday, and she travelled home with the Nkhoma ambulance early the next morning.  I’ll tell you, and I am so happy for her!

This entry was posted in Blindness, Cataract, Child, Diabetes, Diabetic, Outreach, Sorbitol, Surgery, Uncategorized, Vision 2020. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. |

2 Comments

  1. Precious
    Posted July 6, 2011 at 10:43 am | Permalink

    live In South Africa, my mother is loosing her sight due to Sugar Diabetes.
    She has not been working for a year now.
    She is very depressed and we need help.
    She want to continue working, she is still 55 years old.
    she use to rive all over now she cannot.

  2. Arthur Baker
    Posted July 31, 2011 at 2:36 pm | Permalink

    Jesus said, “tell John the blind can see”.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>