Optometrists focus on need in Africa

Published Aug. 9, 2010
By Lance Cpl. Jad Sleiman
Marine Forces Africa

TENGA, Mozambique -- Stepahno Shivanbe doesn't know much English, but he knows enough to say, "Thank you. Thank you very much."

That's what he kept repeating as he walked out of the examination room, an olive-drab shipping container marked "Optometry."

The elderly man was one of the first patients treated at the optometry section of the Task Force Unity, a coordinated humanitarian civil assistance program that began in the tiny village of Tenga, Aug. 4, as part of Exercise Shared Accord 2010.

"He's like a plus 12, which is way off," said U.S. Air Force Capt. (Dr.) Daniel Dillinger, describing Mr. Shivanbe's nearsightedness. "This will be the first time he's seen in years."

His patient had suffered from cataracts before a botched surgery in 2009 that only worsened the man's condition.

Captain Dillinger is an optometrist from Air Force Reserve Command's 940th Aerospace Medical Flight at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. After he saw Mr. Shivanbe, he watched as Master Sgt. Darrin Oglesby, an optometry technician with the Reserve's 507th Medical Squadron, Tinker AFB, Okla., fashion the man a pair of dual-lens glasses using a length of surgical tape.

"We're going to have to tape two pairs of glasses together to make it work," said Sergeant Oglesby as he tried lens combinations.

The sum total of two prescriptions came close to, but still couldn't fully meet, Mr. Shivanbe's prescription. None of the 2,400 stocked lenses, which were primarily donated by Lion's Club members in the United States, were strong enough the meet the man's extraordinary needs.

Sergeant Oglesby fitted Mr. Shivanbe's glasses and had him try out his new spectacles on near and far away objects. Through hand motions, the two decided on the best view, and Mr. Shivanbe's smile told the Airmen their unorthodox creation was working.

Master Sgt. Andrew Bogart, a medic with the 514th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., said such nonverbal communication was key because tribal language translators were in short supply.

"It's mostly kind of sign language," he said. "A lot of thumbs up, thumbs down."

Still, despite the difficulties, the Airmen smiled right along with their patients. And after years of near blindness, Mr. Shivanbe's new glasses returned his vision.

The Airmen of the optometry section see an average of 75 patients a day. Common ailments ranging from cataracts to glaucoma, to ptyergius - a condition in which the white of the eye grows over the pupil, obstructing or obscuring vision altogether, said Captain Dillinger.

"Many of the conditions we see are caused because of chronic dryness, dust and ultraviolet exposure," the doctor said. "In the States we have so many tools around us to treat these conditions, but here it's you and your brain."

Captain Dillinger, along with a team of Marines, Sailors and Soldiers, will travel to two more villages to provide medical and dental aid as SA10 continues.

The exercise brings together more than 1,000 U.S. service members and Mozambican soldiers who increase Mozambique's capacity to carry out peace and stability operations.