2010 Corinto, Nicaragua

2010 Corinto, Nicaragua

We were in Nicaragua July 23-August 1. I had 3 licensed OD’s from Michigan, Ireland, and New Hampshire. Also in attendance was a 3rd year optometry student and 2 pre-optometry students plus one optician. There were 10 lay people that helped also.
 
We worked at the Chinandega Police Headquarters on Saturday and Sunday. The amount of poor distance vision in the police force was disturbing. Several police officers were referred for trauma situations. Citizens were also seen at this location.
 

We then spent Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Corinto, the port city of Nicaragua. There is no documentation of any medical brigade giving vision care in this area. We found that very apparent based upon the patient population. We were scheduled to see 750 patients at this location but only completed just over 620 exams due to their chronic needs. Normally, I get just over 10 referrals per trip, but we referred 93 total patients for this trip. Many referrals were for things other than cataracts. This included retinal trauma, degenerative diseases, and botched surgeries. Our OD’s and students took the time and care required to work with these patients and give a thorough examination instead of rushing them along to ‘get more numbers’. The quality of care was top-notch.  We will be going back to Corinto to continue to service that area. They are in dire need of vision care.

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