KARACHI: The work goes on as normal at the Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust (LRBT) on Thursday when people across the globe celebrate World Sight Day.

As usual there are the doctors and staff of the charity hospital busy screening children in schools and madressahs. Dawn encountered one of their teams at the Government Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre. Testing the eyesight of special children suffering from various physical and mental disabilities is not so simple. The LRBT staff is patient and thorough. They listen to the teachers to understand the problem of each of their students. There is one teacher there complaining that his student cannot focus on the blackboard. He has to have very weak eyesight, the teacher says. Indeed he is right.

In addition to screening of students, the teachers and parents are also trained to keep a watchout for eye problems. The doctors and staff are also there to spread awareness among them.

Afterwards, all the children who had their eyes checked are given star badges with LRBT printed on them. They are called Naiki ke sitaray (Stars of goodwill) by LRBT. Their teachers quickly help the students pin them on. The LRBT doctors and staff have also prepared goody bags for the children.

Trust’s 19 hospitals, 60 clinics treat over 10,000 patients, perform 1,000 surgeries across country daily

Committed to providing ‘free eye care for the poor’ since its inception in 1984, every day is World Sight Day at LRBT. They treat a collective of around 1,500 patients on a daily basis in the two LRBT hospitals of Karachi — in Korangi and North Karachi.

10,500 patients being treated daily across country

All in all, LRBT has 19 hospitals and 60 eye care clinics throughout Pakistan where 10,500 patients are treated daily, which includes 1,000 surgeries. This record of surgeries in a day was broken only two days ago when they even crossed that number to reach the figure of 11,051 surgeries.

At the LRBT flagship hospital in Korangi, there is a constant flow of patients of all ages since early morning. There is a long queue of rickshaws parked outside the hospital. Patients have come to seek treatment not just from Karachi but other cities also. To facilitate them there are separate waiting areas for male, female as well as children with their own consultation areas, surgeries and other special units. Of the three million people who are treated in LRBT hospitals annually, some 300,000 happen to be children.

LRBT’s Administrative Superintendent Dr Malik Ahmed Saeed says that the segregation is necessary. “It is needed in our society,” he tells Dawn.

“It is for the ease of mind of the patients,” he adds. “For most of our female areas, we have also taken care to have female staff. Even if there is a male specialist as we don’t have a female of the same speciality we make sure that he is assisted by females when dealing with any female case.”

He also adds that the gender ratio of patients at LRBT is 51pc females to 49pc males.

LRBT’s Resource Development Manager Maleeha Aiman Ali says that no one should be blind.

“Of the 26 million people suffering from some form of visual impairment or blindness, 90pc are curable. They are just unable to see due to lack of education, awareness and access to eye care. A simple cataract surgery can end blindness and a life of dependency,” she adds.

Adding to that Mudassara Samiullah, in charge of content coordination and patient engagement at LRBT, says that they also carry out follow-up visits after treating people in communities and remote areas of the city, and country. “We also spread awareness regarding eye care. When we visit areas, we make announcements from the loudspeakers in mosques. So many people experiencing blindness in our country think that they are going to stay that way, which is not the case,” she says.

She shares the example of a young mother who went blind as a child and remained that way until she grew up and got married. “She even had two children. Then when she moved to Karachi with her family, her uncle brought her to the LRBT’s hospital in Korangi. She was diagnosed and operated upon for cataracts. For the first time she saw her two children and her husband.”

Free cornea transplant surgery

Another example shared by Ms Samiullah is of Omar, a student of class eight who was hit in the eye with a cricket ball while playing. “He underwent cornea transplant surgery here and is back to normal now,” she says.

Cornea transplant surgery is usually very costly, around Rs1m but it is free at LRBT though they have some 500 patients on their waiting list.

Dr Saeed says that these days they receive corneas from the US through the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA). “Earlier, we used to get corneas from Sri Lanka but that changed after the Covid lockdowns as the condition of corneas from there had deteriorated by the time we got them,” he says, adding that they hardly get any donors from Pakistan.

Ms Samiullah says then that here, too they need some education and awareness regarding the matter.

“During our community visits, we met a maulvi sahib who was against donating corneas. He said that you cannot bury a Muslim without his corneas. Then one day, he brought over a relative in need of cornea replacement. We asked him what he thought about it then. He sat with us for a long time to understand more. And afterwards he promised to do all he can to spread awareness regarding the matter,” she says, adding that for some strange reason people here think that the entire eye needs to be taken out or replaced though it is just a small tissue from the eye that is removed or replaced.

So far, LRBT has successfully transformed 54m lives by giving them sight.

Dr Saeed explains that even though they are a charity organisation, they also get patients from elite backgrounds. “Most often they come here looking for second opinions because the bigger eye hospitals often prescribe cataract surgeries or other unnecessary treatments while looking for their own gain. It is not like that here,” he points out.

“LRBT is more than just a hospital providing eye care. It is an ecosystem,” concludes Ms Maleeha. “We treat people free of charge, we do follow-ups, we provide visual aids, we spread awareness, we rehabilitate people with low vision, too, so that they can carry out basic work and not remain dependent on others,” she says.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2023