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With more than 15 years, this humanitarian project, implemented by revolutionary leaders Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, has improved or restored the vision to more than 6 million low-income people in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Cuban doctors in Haiti resumed Operacion Milagros (Operation Miracle), one of the main cooperation projects between the two countries, which has already restored the vision to some 72,710 patients.
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Since 2006, the mission has assisted an average of 5,000 people annually, particularly those suffering from pterygium (a disease that damages the conjunctiva and cornea) — as well as cataracts, which consist of the growing opacity of the natural lens of the eye.
The substantial socio-political unrest that Haiti experienced at the end of 2019 suspended the cooperation specially designed for vulnerable people, who cannot afford consultations and surgeries in the private medical sector, Cuban ophthalmologist Yoardinkis de la Torre told Prensa Latina.
"We started with the pterygium specifically and then reintroduced the cataract surgery that restores the vision, and the miracle to see a new dawn," the doctor said.
He said that the population is eager for this service, so they have scheduled 300 monthly operations at La Renaissance hospital, located in the heart of the Haitian capital.
"It is a team that works together. While the surgeries are performed, a pre-operative line is made. Twenty-four hours later, this patient is seen by a post-operative team and clinically evaluated to return and follow up on him or her," he said.
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