From Sadness to Happiness: The Joy of a Blind Mother

Care Doctors held the second health camp of 2022 in Tanzania in the past months and has already started the preparations for the next health camp. Ophthalmologist Dr. Mustafa Yanik, who has operated on thousands of patients in the treatment of cataract disease, which is common in Africa. Mustafa Yanık shared with us an incident that happened to him in the Tanzania Health Camp. This event was about an emotional memory of a mother who could not see her children for years, seeing her children for the first time after cataract surgery and hugging them while crying. Dr. Yanık told us that, a mother who came to the Health Camp was a cataract patient who had not seen her children for years. This made his daily life very difficult. For example, because she hadn't seen her children for years, she couldn't see their facial expressions either. This made it difficult for them to understand and communicate their feelings. She often had to seek help to meet her children's needs. Because even in simple matters such as dressing them or feeding them, it was a source of great distress due to cataracts. She couldn't be sure if her children were safe if there was silence in the house. Thanks to Allah Subhanallah wa taala she can see again and thanks to the Care Doctors, who were volunteer doctors who came to her village. Dr. described the first moments after the surgery as follows:

“I never forget. A woman with six children, 36 years old. She was married when she was young, and she has cataracts in both eyes. We operated on both eyes. Normally we don't do both eyes at the same time, but we operated on it. It is one of the things I am most impressed with. She has never seen her children, after the surgery she rush to play with her kids, touched their faces, tried to see them. This is one of the things that affected me the most in my life, for that it is worth everything. When we took off the bandage from their mother's eyes that day, the room was empty. Her children stood silently in front of her. The youngest was covering his mouth with his hands so as not to laugh. I took off the bandages and told her to look at me. As soon as the mother opened her eyes, the children's first hugs to their mothers and the surprise and happiness of the mother when she saw her children were worth seeing. Seeing her children for the first time, the mother cried and hugged them. This moment meant so much to her… Maybe she felt bad for not seeing them for years, but now she would see them very clearly, know that they were safe and would be able to meet their needs easily. From the first moment she opened her eyes after the surgery, she couldn't get enough of looking at her children's faces. She had waited years to see their faces. She cried as she cried, and she hugged her children once more. They also started to cry as they felt her warm hug. This was a moment of great happiness and emotional commitment for the mother. Although they had lived in the same house for years, this was the first time they had truly embraced each other. When we see the smiling faces of their faces, all our tiredness disappeared at that moment. Alhamdulillah the result was very nice. The smile of the patient at the moment that eye was opened is worth everything. As long as our hands do not tremble and our eyes continue to see, I hope we will do more work in Africa.”

Care Doctors is getting the support of its valuable donors as it prepares to add a new health camp full of these and similar stories. If you want to follow the other activities of Care Doctors closely, you can visit Çare Doktorları