{"id":248204,"date":"2017-03-14T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=248204"},"modified":"2017-03-14T06:00:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:00:06","slug":"khorram-combats-cataract-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/khorram-combats-cataract-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bKhorram combats cataract in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-248204 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/khorram-combats-cataract-africa\/mei-pix2\/'>MEI-pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248227'>\n\t\t\t\tDavid Khorram with the operating room doctors and staff in Ghana, Africa. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/khorram-combats-cataract-africa\/mei-pix1\/'>MEI-pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248226'>\n\t\t\t\tDavid Khorram, left, and Arman Khorram, second from right, worked with volunteers from Vanderbilt, Duke, and University of New England to combat blindness in rural Africa in collaboration with Marianas Eye Institute. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Marianas Eye Institute\u2019s\u00a0co-founder Dr. David Khorram, accompanied by his 16-year-old son Arman, recently went to Ghana, Africa, to provide needed cataract surgery. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The two were Global Impact fellows with the non-profit organization, Unite for Sight, based in New Haven, Connecticut. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cThe training was a refresher of sorts for me,\u201d said Khorram.\u00a0\u201cHowever, it was all new for Arman and it prepared him well for the time we spent in the villages in Ghana.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Global Impact fellows undergo training on providing care in rural and underserved areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u200bIn Ghana, the Khorrams\u00a0were joined by three other volunteers, all university students. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The team members, accompanied by staff from the Crystal Eye Clinic in Accra, Ghana, traveled each day to outlying villages and conducted large scale community screening campaigns to identify those with vision problems. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the team members, including those from the Saipan\u00a0eye clinic, gathered statistics to be used in research to improve care in the region. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They saw up to 200 patients per day. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe screenings were done in partnership with local village organizations who announced days ahead of time that we were arriving,\u201d Khorram\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cBecause of the absence of hospitals and health centers, we used local schools or community centers to perform the exams. \u00a0The university volunteers and Arman\u00a0checked vision, while those of us with medical training, conducted the formal eye exams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u200bOn\u00a0some days, while the team members were in the outlying villages, Khorram\u00a0joined ophthalmologists from the Crystal Eye Clinic to help clear the backlog of cataract surgery. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a limited number of ophthalmologists in the country,\u201d said Khorram.\u00a0\u201cNot enough to serve the population. So volunteer ophthalmologists are needed to perform cataract surgery.\u201d \u00a0<br \/>\n\u200b<br \/>\nCataract is the world\u2019s leading cause of reversible blindness, affecting some 20 million people globally. Cataracts are also the leading cause of vision loss in Saipan. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cataract is a clouding of the natural lens inside the eye, which causes blurred vision. \u00a0It occurs most commonly with aging, and with diabetes. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Marianas Eye Institute is the major center for treatment of diabetic eye disease on Saipan, we also treat a lot of cataracts. \u00a0Cataract surgery, with today\u2019s modern technique of phacoemulsification, can be performed in under 20 minutes, and the same day, the patient can see again,\u201d said Russ Quinn, the Saipan\u00a0eye clinic\u2019s CEO. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Dennis Williams performs the high-tech cataract surgery on Saipan, while Khorram\u00a0now spends most of his professional time as an international volunteer eye surgeon. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marianas Eye Institute\u2019s\u00a0co-founder Dr. David Khorram, accompanied by his 16-year-old son Arman, recently went to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":248226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15952,3053,15953,15954],"class_list":["post-248204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-crystal-eye-clinic","tag-dennis-williams","tag-global-impact","tag-new-haven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}