The protective gauze had been removed from across her brow, Deng
Yongzhen slowly opened her eyes, and saw her doctor, her son and
her husband clearly.
Deng, who had suffered from a cataract since she was 12, said
she could not believe it: Her sight was back, and she was freed
from the blurred world she had been struggling in for the past two
decades.
Her luck changed in August when Deng was the recipient of a free
cataract-removal operation on a mobile medical train - the Lifeline
Express.
US-based Pfizer Pharmaceutical Limited donated an artificial
lens for her
"It is so nice to see everything so clearly, and that was the
first time that I was able to see very clearly what my 13-year-old
son looks like," the smiling Deng recalled.
Deng is a 32-year-old farmer from the poverty-stricken village
of Yueliangpo in Lushi Town of Guang'an city in Southwest China's
Sichuan
Province.
Before she regained her eyesight, Deng could only fumble doing
simple housework. Her husband was the family's breadwinner doing
some odd jobs with an annual income of less than 2,000 yuan
(US$240).
Apart from buying daily necessities, the family's money is
mainly used to cover schooling for the couple's son and to support
her husband's 71-year-old mother who had to stay in bed because of
illness.
There was no way the family could have afforded the operation
which would cost at least 2000 yuan (US$240).
Now, Deng says, she has a big plan, hoping to plant some
vegetables and sell them. She is hopeful she can earn at least
1,000 yuan (US$120) for her family, she said.
A total of 45,000 cataract patients like Deng in 19 provinces
have so far received operations and regained their eyesight with
help of the Lifeline Express.
The Lifeline Express, launched in July 1997, is a gift for the
mainland people by benevolent people from all walks of life in Hong
Kong.
It is the first mobile hospital train heading to various areas
of China to perform no-cost medical treatment to poverty-stricken
cataract suffers, said Nellie Fong from the Impact Hong Kong
Foundation, which started the program seven years ago.
According to Fong who is also the vice-chairman of a newly
established China Foundation for Lifeline Express, the program has
so far increased to three eye-trains.
All the surgeons working on the trains are volunteers from major
hospitals in Beijing, each usually serving for three month
terms.
With advanced medical equipment on board, more than 9,000 people
can be helped every year.
The work has gained support from all circles since it was
founded and now more and more people are participating in this
charitable work, said Zhu Qingsheng, vice-minister of Health, who
is also a vice-chairman of the foundation.
Zhu said besides providing free operations to more patients, the
program will also carry out professional training for local eye
doctors.
Fong said that the foundation plans to set up 10 training
centers by 2008 in provinces such as Yunnan, Sichuan, Hebei, as
well as Guangxi Zhuang and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions.
They also plan to expand the program to Tibet
Autonomous Region once the railway opens for traffic, she
said.
Cataracts have become one of the major causes of blindness in
China and the incidence rate is increasing because of the growth in
the elderly population, said Yin Dakui, secretary-general of China
Foundation for Lifeline Express.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that there are
presently about 4 million cataract patients in China and every
year, some 400,000 new cases are reported.
More than half of these cataract suffers live in the rural
remote parts of China where poverty and limited medical care have
been a hindrance to their cure.
(China Daily November 29, 2004)