Chote Lal is from village Pastevra, District Bullanshahr, in Uttar Pradesh belongs to a poor family. He lost his father in 2001 when he was 15 years old and was going to school. The burden of the house hold was on his shoulders. He started working as a rickshaw puller `Tonga’ (Horse and carriage) which was inherited from his father. He has eight members in the family. His mother, he and his wife, 4 daughters and one son. He earns Rs. 100-150 in a day. With this meagre income the family would occasionally go to bed without food.
Two years ago while playing his son Adesh fell into the fire and burnt his scalp. Luckily he healed and survived. We noticed one year later he started losing vision in both his eyes. He begged money for the treatment from the people already when he was burnt. Now he was in distress again as he has to take the child for the eye treatment. Somehow he arranged money to see the local doctor where he was advised to put an eye drop for a month and he would be fine. But he did not improve. He was in sever grief while the villagers told him that do not be disheartened, go to the eye camp being organized by ICARE Eye Hospital at Anupshahr on every Wednesday.
Doctors diagnosed him to be having bilateral cataract. He was brought to the base hospital in the hospital’s ambulance. Adesh was examined and posted for surgery after investigations including pre anaesthesia check-up. His right eye surgery was done with intraocular lens implant by a Paediatric Ophthalmologist Dr. Geetha Srinivasan on 29.08.16. Now Adesh can see with one eye and moves around with ease and also plays with other children in the wards.
His father Chote Lal is thrilled to see his child’s improvement. He says that in today’s world there are doctors in organizations like ICARE Eye Hospital which truly look after poor people like us with sympathy and compassion.