By JULIAN SUHR Palisadian-Post Intern In July 2006, Dr. Troy Elander, a Palisades ophthalmologist, performed the first corneal transplant in Uganda’s history when he traveled with Orbis, a nonprofit organization that works to combat blindness worldwide. Utilizing a DC-10 aircraft that has been converted into an eye hospital, Orbis brings together volunteer nurses, doctors and technicians, who not only perform operations, but also teach eye-care techniques to local ophthalmologists. When the Orbis DC-10 lands in a country, local doctors are invited inside, where a modified teaching auditorium has replaced the first and business class seats. The area is equipped with three large screens that broadcast operations such as like corneal transplants that are being performed in the middle third of the plane. The surgeon talks into a microphone as he operates and explains the procedure. A microphone in the front of the plane allows local doctors to ask questions of the surgeon during the operation. ?It is like a family when you get there,? says Elander, a Palisades resident. ?You get the sense the whole world is coming together to work on blindness.? In Uganda, it is illegal to perform organ transplants, so one of the objectives of Elander’s 2006 trip was to try to change those laws. During the eye operations, minister of health Dr. Richard Nibuhura observed the local doctors participating in the transplants, and pledged in a subsequent news conference to install new laws to make organ transplants legal. “One of the big points for me is going to a place like this where they don’t do this kind of surgery because they have laws against organ transplants, and then convincing the leaders that we can help them,” Elander says. While in Uganda, Elander operated on six patients, doing corneal transplants exclusively (the Orbis team has a doctor for each type of surgery performed; Elander has performed cataract surgery on earlier trips). A corneal transplant corrects a condition known as keratoconus, where the cornea thins out and projects like a cone. In the United States, keratoconus is treated with contact lenses, but in Uganda contact lenses are not readily available. To replace a cornea, the doctor has to remove the front part of the cornea and sew the donor cornea into position. The operation is extremely delicate and requires follow-up operations, which is why the Orbis team also instructs local doctors. As it is, the country’s ophthalmologists are overwhelmed, with only about 40 doctors to treat a population of 25 to 30 million. ?There are about 60,000 to 70,000 people who are blind that could see again with corneal transplants,? Elander says. ?We examined 15- and 16- year-olds who were already completely blind.? One patient he operated on had gone blind when he was 12. Now 16, the patient had taught himself Braille and left his family to attend a school for the blind. After Elander’s operation, the boy was able to move back into his family and continue his education at home. He now wishes to enter a profession where he can spend his life helping others. Traveling with Orbis, doctors do not have much time for sightseeing. ?It took 35 hours of travel to get to Uganda,? Elander recalls. ?You don?t have much time before you start to operate, you haven?t slept, and then you have to perform. It is labor intensive.? “Every time I go on trips like this it really shows me how people are so much alike and how we have so much in common,” says Elander, who has also traveled on medical missions to India, China, Armenia, Bangladesh and Jamaica, “We just start out in different places.” When asked where he might be going next he replies, ?I?ve been with them for 10 years and they call me periodically, depending on where they?re going and the needs of the country.? He plans to continue working with Orbis as long as he can because he helps individuals, teaches the doctors, and raises media awareness by bringing it to the attention of public officials so that laws can be changed. Elander, who grew up in the Palisades and graduated from Palisades High, has operated a private practice here for 17 years. His wife Diane, in addition to working as a food stylist, is also active with the local schools, including serving as a PRIDE co-chair at Paul Revere for two years. The couple has three children: Samantha, a freshman at Palisades Charter High School; Annie, a seventh grader at Paul Revere; and William, a first grader at Palisades Charter Elementary.
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