Category: Hue Vietnam

On June 2nd we arrived into Vietnam with the generous gift of 10 donor cornea transplants from the US. This was the largest number of transplant tissue every received by Vietnam. The tissue was used to restore the sight of 10 blind patients.

Translation of Article published in all of the Vietnamese Newspapers!

American doctors give special gifts to Vietnamese eye patients

15:18 June 3, 2019

The gifts consists of 10 corneas of deceased Americans. In particular, 5 corneas were awarded immediately to Hue Central Hospital.

On June 2, at the Da Nang airport, the National Center for Organ Transplant Coordination received a special gift from Doctor Kondrot, an ophthalmologist from the Hawaiian Eye Foundation and See International (USA).

Doctor Kondrot and his wife Ly Kondrot often volunteer around the world, they often go to poor countries to perform free eye surgeries and corneal transplant programs for poor patients, especially children. Doctor Kondrot said that each time he goes on his volunteer programs, he would inform and propose to the Eye Bank in the US.

The Eye Bank in the United States will provide corneas with complete records for Doctor Kondrot. Usually they will send him 2 to 3 corneas for each trip. However, this time he was surprised when the Eye Bank sent 10 corneas, the largest number of corneas the doctor ever received for a voluntary trip abroad. It is however a very great gift due to the extremely long waiting list for cornea transplants at the hospitals in Vietnam.

Ms. Ly Kondrot is a native of Vietnam, she always had a dream to return to Vietnam with her husband to help patients suffering from eye diseases. According to Ms. Ly, her husband only wishes is to use his lifelong skills, knowledge and ability of ophthalmology to teach and train other doctors to help poor patients.

Dr Kondrot and his wife came to Vietnam this time at the invitation of Hue Central Hospital. Doctor Kondrot will join the doctors of Hue Central Hospital to transplant corneas and provide free surgeries for poor patients in Hue from 3/67 / 6/2019.

Doctor CK II Pham Nhu Vinh Tuyen Deputy Head of the Department of Ophthalmology Hue Central Hospital said that the hospital has received a gift of 5 corneas from doctor Kondrot. Accordingly, there will be 5 cases of corneal transplants and 50 patients with cataract surgery.

The remaining five corneas were transferred to Hanoi by the Center for Organ Transplantation on June 2 and handed back to the Eye Bank. Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoang Director of the Eye Bank, said this is a valuable gift for the Eye Bank and patients waiting for corneal transplants.

In 2018, there were 109 corneal donations with nearly 200 corneas ensuring quality and transplantation for waiting patients. From the beginning of 2019 until now, the Bank received 65 offerings. Meanwhile, the number of people registered for corneal transplants at Central Eye Hospital always fluctuates from 800- 1,000 people. The number of corneas is very small, so the hospital always performs corneal transplantation based on priority for those who have both blind eyes first.

🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳👍👍👍 Vietnam Eye Surgery Mission Trip 🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
The human eyes are now being transplanted over to patients with severe cornea diseases that are making them blind.
Since this is mainly a teaching trip to help the local doctors learn how to do the transplants, the work is long and tedious but Dr. Kondrot is patiently working with the doctors showing them one suture at a time until they get the procedure down.
Here he is showing them how to suture the donor tissue onto the host patient prepared receiving eye.
Follow Dr. Kondrot’s Mission work at www.missiontocureblindness.com
🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳👍👍👍

🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳Vietnam Eye Surgical Mission Trip 🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
Hand carrying cornea tissues through TSA.
We don’t want tissues to go through X ray so they need to be hand checked.
The TSA officer then close up the box and put on the official TSA tape!
We are good to go!
Some eye blindness condition can only be treated by a cornea transplant. Unfortunately, the eye bank in Vietnam does not have enough cornea for transplant operation so the waiting list is very long.
We are very happy to be able to get these tissues back to Vietnam where we can work with the local doctors to help them with cornea transplant techniques.
Follow us as we report on our trip to Vietnam.
Find out more about Dr Kondrot mission trip at www.healingtheeye.com
🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳

Our supplies for 50 eye surgeries have arrived! We pack them into our suitcases.
This trip will be special with 10 cornea transplants. The tissues arrived today and we will hand carry them over to the Hue hospital in central Vietnam.
We will be teaching the local doctors how to do cornea transplants.
We are set to go.
Follow us here as we report on our progress in Hue, Vietnam.
Find out more about Dr. Kondrot Mission work at www.healingtheeye.com
🌈🌈🌈🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳❤️💛💚

 

We have been invited to Hue, Vietnam 6/1-6/9, 2019  Plans are to help with phacoemulsification  cases and teach doctors corneal transplant techniques.