Monrovia is a small city, but with a number of visually impaired persons on its streets who, most times, are accompanied by adolescents who are supposed to be in school at that time of the day. They are seen begging and trying to make ends meet for themselves and their families. There are others who are not completely blind but suffer minor and major complications with their eyes but apparently do not know their way out; as such, their complications develop through stages and finally lead to their blindness.
In the midst of these unfortunate situations, it appears like the Liberia Eye Center (LEC), located at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Memorial Hospital, has the answers to many of the eye problems encountered by Liberians.
Paying a visit to the LEC-JFK on Saturday, two days after the celebration of the World Sight Day and a day after the World White Cane Day, the Hot Pepper gathered that the center provides a number of services and surgeries on the eye, including treating eye infections, diabetic eye conditions evaluation and laser treatment, glaucoma assessment and surgery, cataract surgery with superior quality intra-ocular lens implantation, surgeries for eyelid problems, treatments for eye cancers, refractive error correction with provision of spectacles, and many more.
The center, which is said to have been negotiated for by former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf during the early years of her second term in office, has been in operation in Liberia since 2017. It is a collaborative center between the JFK Medical Center and the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), India.
The Hot Pepper is informed that the eye center at the JFK is the first time that LVPEI is directly involved in the operations of an eye center outside India, and that the former Indian Consul General to Liberia, Upjit Singh Sachdeva, alias Jeety, was instrumental in persuading the LVPEI to open the center in Liberia, honoring the appeal of then President Sirleaf.
While thousands of patients have benefitted from the services of the center over the past 4 years, there are many others who are yet to be served and are unnecessarily suffering from various eye conditions. It is believed that, if the importance of eye health is given the necessary awareness among the people, the LEC-JFK stands to wipe off avoidable blindness from Liberia.
Speaking to the Head of the Liberia Eye Center during the visit, Dr. Niranjan K. Pehere, the Hot Pepper was informed that the Center follows a unique time-tested model of self-sustainability that was developed in India by the LV Prasad Eye Institute. The payment for examination and surgeries at the center are put in three categories: elite, regular and gratis. According to Dr. Pehere, the center ensures that no patient is turned away because they are not able to afford the fee, irrespective of the complexity of the eye problem. However, he said, in order to sustain the quality services at the clinic, patients are charged in line with their financial strength, and the revenue generated is reverted to cover the cost for the surgeries performed free of charge.
Dr. Pehere said, “This is LVPEI’s model of providing excellence with equity,” pointing out that the LV Prasad Institute is a not-for-profit organization, and so the eye clinic at the JFK is operated largely on a humanitarian basis. He noted that the center follows a system in appraising the financial strength of patients, which informs their decision in charging a patient an amount or treating them free of charge.
The professional eye surgeon told the Hot Pepper that efforts are being made toward training Liberian doctors to perform the surgeries. According to him, in 2018 the Liberian Residency Program in Ophthalmology was launched in partnership with the Liberian College of Physicians and Surgeons—a post-graduate program geared toward training Liberian doctors.
He disclosed that two doctors recently graduated from the program, four are currently enrolled, and two are expected to be enrolled soon. He said when it is satisfactorily confirmed that the Liberian doctors are adequately trained and proved to be capable of handling the affairs of the eye center, the LV Prasad Institute will then turn the clinic over to the Government of Liberia (GOL), to be run by the trained Ophthalmologists.
Dr. Pehere lauded the administration of JFK, headed by Dr. Jerry Brown, for the cordial working relationship, and rained praises on the committed nurses, technicians and staff assigned at the Liberia Eye Center, many of whom he said were trained by the LVPEI for the task at the center. He noted that without them the center would not have been successful.
He disclosed that, on Thursday, October 14, 2021, which was celebrated as World Sight Day, the Liberia Eye Center donated equipment to the JFK Medical Center as a way of fostering the existing ties between the two institutions, observing that the equipment were needed to set up an operation theater at the JFK Hospital, including everything that is needed for the patients to recover after the surgery.
Even though he said he has experienced several challenges while working in Liberia, and that many of these challenges were made more complex by the COVID-19, he admitted that Liberians are a friendly people who are easy to be adapted to. He however lamented the little awareness given to the eye health and maintained that, if people gave attention to their eye health well in time, many patients can be saved from going blind. He noted that due to many patients not being aware of the eye care facilities available in Liberia, they resort to herbal treatment or no treatment at all, as only a handful of them are able to travel out of Liberia for treatment.
“Awareness is the most critical aspect for the eye health in Liberia at this time. We have an excellent facility here, but when patients reach in the advanced stage of the disease we can do little to help them,” Dr. Pehere told the Hot Pepper in an exclusive interview.
He used the opportunity to call on Liberians to take good care of their vision, as the eyesight is very precious. He urged those who observe abnormal behavior in their eyes to go for checkup as early as possible, because when the disease develops beyond a certain extent they will not be able to do much.
“Just yesterday, I met a lady who has cancer on her eye, but the disease had developed so much that doing surgery on her eye will cause harm. So, we only put her on drugs that could possibly reduce the size of the cancer, but there was no way to get rid of it. She was so sad about it. Had she come a few months earlier, possibly she could have been cured of the cancer completely. Every day we feel sad to see so many young patients who come with undiagnosed advanced glaucoma. Despite our best possible efforts, we can do nothing to regain their lost eyesight and we struggle to preserve their remaining eyesight. We are committed to changing this scenario in times to come, until every Liberian gets his right to sight,” Dr. Pehere explained.