5 years old Ibrahim is the only child of Mehtab and Murtaza who was born after 11 long years of their marriage. Since his birth, Ibrahim was the sole centre of attention for his parents, but for some reason it was impossible to guard him from excessive crying and clinging due to which Mehtab found it extremely difficult to perform her household chores. When Ibrahim was 7 months old his parents noticed some whiteness in his eyes and realized that their son had some vision problem. Living in the slums of Quetta, Murtaza was a daily wage laborer who earned barely enough money to feed his family. He borrowed money from his friend and took Ibrahim to a private hospital where he was disappointed to find out that Ibrahim had Cataract by birth and the only way to restore his vision was by performing his sight restoration Cataract Surgery that would cost him £182 (Rs. 30,000/- ) for each eye. There was no way he could afford this expense and felt extremely helpless. He often blamed himself for his son’s plight and prayed to God for a miracle. Years passed by and Ibrahim’s vision further deteriorated making him socially isolated as he didn’t want to mingle with other children who called him names owing to his blindness. His parents were also distressed, however his fate was destined to change when an old friend of Murtaza came to visit him and seeing his son’s problem told him about LRBT free eye hospital in Quetta. Murtaza was extremely happy to hear this and took Ibrahim to the hospital the very next day. At LRBT hospital Quetta Ibrahim was thoroughly examined and was given a date for his surgery. The nervous parents brought him on the given date and Ibrahim was successfully operated. The news of his successful surgery brought relief to the disturbed parents who burst into tears and were lost for words. They were deeply thankful LRBT staff and its generous donors for restoring their son’s sight and saving him from a dark future. Ibrahim is the 27 millionth patient whose vision has been restored by LRBT. Since its inception 28 years ago LRBT, through its 17 hospitals and 54 Clinics, has treated over 27 million patients and performed over 2.7 million major and minor eye surgeries absolutely free. During the year ending June’13 alone LRBT treated over 2.2 million patients in OPD and performed over 220,000 major & minor surgeries free of all charges. LRBT is the major provider of eye care in the country treating 36% of all eye patients, performing 27.4% of eye surgeries and 32% of all Pediatric eye surgeries, all free of cost. However, there are still 18.7 million people in Pakistan who suffer from blindness and impaired vision out of which 2.6 million are children. 80% of them suffer needlessly as their vision can be restored however most of them live around the poverty line and cannot afford the treatment.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 04:44:28 +0000
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