Phoolwati W/o (Late) Manglu, a 65 years old female came to us from village Bahadurgarh, Garhmukteshwar, UP. She struggled through life as she could not settle down in her marital home due to the death of her husband shortly after marriage. She left her home and came to live with her brothers and their family. Her left eye had already been damaged earlier due to an injury and she had vision only in her right eye. However with her limited vision she managed to work in the field and do all the household chores. She had no help as one sister-in-law and brother were also blind. As time went on she found that her vision in the right eye was also diminishing and gradually she lost her vision almost completely.
One can imagine the plight with three blind people in the house now, her brother, sister-in-law and herself. They have eight family members to feed and only one bread earner. Her nephew used to work in a brick klin and make a meagre income. Added to this he had to take physical care of all the three visually handicapped family members at home taking them to relieve themselves was becoming a problem and embarrassment for him.
Due to lack of awareness and resources available he never took them to the doctors for treatment. He heard about the eye camp being organized a nearby village. He brought his mother and aunt Phoolwati for examination but did not have much hope of visual recovery as he thought there were going to be blind for life.
They were both diagnosed as having cataract and advised surgery to be done immediately. He was in a dilemma as to whom he should get treated first. He was counselled by the ICARE team and encouraged to take both the ladies for cataract surgery. Unfortunately his mother could not be operated on as she had high sugar level and asked to come back after control of her blood sugar. But Phoolwati after undergoing pre operative investigations was operated on 1st March 2016 by a Consultant as she was one eyed.
When her bandage was removed the next day she was so filled with happiness that she couldn’t express her feelings. She could now see, after remaining in darkness for six long years. She felt independent and could walk up and down the staircase as well as to the bathroom attached to the ward on her own.
She went home an elated person very excited that she would again be an useful member of the household doing all the regular chores and going back to the field to work again. She would convince her brother- in- law and sister-in-law to come for surgery through the camp.