Source: Nanfang Daily 2014-08-14 Page A09
Written by: Cao Si
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Recently, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) sent a 15-member medical team to offer free medical consultations and cataract surgeries in Yushu, Qinghai province. On August 13, the author learned from the Center that the medical team had come back. 215 cataract surgeries (including 5 cataract surgeries for children under general anesthesia) and 2 entropion surgeries were performed, and over 1,000 people benefited from the free diagnosis activity.

High altitude sickness is the biggest difficulty for the team members to overcome. Due to hypoxia, Huang Wenyong, Luo Lixia, Long Chongde and Huang Shengsong, the four professors in charge of the surgeries, had to inhale oxygen during the operation to relieve high altitude sickness. “This is the characteristic of the operating room in the plateau,” said Luo Lixia.

The experts performed surgeries for three days. After the the surgical dressings were removed, many Tibetan patients who can’t speak Mandarin expressed their gratitude through thumbing up and presenting Hada.

Due to congenital cataract, an eleven-year-old monk was unable to study sutra or look after himself like a normal person. When he heard that the medical team would come again this year, he asked his family member to take him to queue up for the examination. After the cataract surgery was performed on his left eye, he could see the blue sky and yaks he had heard of but had not been able to see clearly since childhood.