Balloch nurse helping Ethiopia see

Nov 21 2008 by Tina Kemp, Lennox Herald (main ed)

A BALLOCH nurse is helping to change the lives of hundreds of Ethiopians by restoring their sight.

Lynn Dempsey is set to embark on her second eye camp in the country where 1.2 million people are blinded by cataracts.

The 47-year-old theatre sister visited Ethiopia earlier this year and helped perform 250 operations which allowed people to see.

Now she and her team, which includes Helensburgh surgeon Dr Allan Cox, hope they can treat as many as 300 when they return in January.

Lynn, from Dalvait Road, became involved with Fighting Blindness In Ethiopia (FBIE) through a colleague at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Greenock.

Now she is campaigning to raise money for the charity to help fund badly needed equipment for Ethiopia’s severely under-funded health system.

On Sunday, November 23, she will be staging a film and picture presentation of the charity’s work at the entrance to Jenners, Loch Lomond Shores, from 10am to 6pm. She and her team of volunteers hope shoppers will pause to learn about FBIE’s work and make a donation.

Lynn, who worked at Vale of Leven Hospital for three years before moving to the IRH, said: “Last year, one of the surgeons I work with had been out to do an eye camp and asked if I would like to go. I do ophthalmic surgery, so I said yes.”

She and a team of four surgeons and another nurse worked at a hospital in Nekempte, around 300km from the capital, Addis Ababa.

She said: “The hospital was a corrugated shack and had hardly any equipment. It had an operating room and we had three microscopes which we could attach to the tables. We lined the patients up side by side.”

Lynn was shocked by the queues of people desperate to be treated, including some from neighbouring Sudan, who had walked 14 days to be there. She said: “There were about 200 outside the hospital waiting to be seen, all with cataracts. Most were from the surrounding villages and all had walked miles.

“We dealt with 50 patients a day. It was an amazing experience. These people were blind one day then suddenly able to see. They were more than grateful, kissing our hands and trying to kiss our feet. It was a very emotional experience.”

Lack of antibiotic drugs means simple eye infections cannot be treated and lead to cataracts. Among Lynn’s patients was a girl of just 13.

She said: “We did 250 operations in seven days. It was quite intense but absolutely amazing to see people being brought in by their families blind, then walking out themselves the next day.

“We had an opportunity to go and see some of the patients we’d treated on our final day to see what a difference it had made to them. That was astounding.”

Lynn and her team, organiser Ergate Ayana, doctors John Murdoch, Henry Bennett, Lennox Webb and Allan Cox, and nurse Margaret MacHale, are looking forward to returning in two months, this time to another hospital.

She said: “We’ve no idea what to expect or what the facilities will be like but we’re hoping to do 300 operations this time.”

Anyone wishing to find out more about FBIE can speak to Lynn at Loch Lomond Shores on Sunday or call her on 07961 426725.