Local medical team paves way for surgery to remove Jamaican girl's cataracts

Vitara Campbell has found a new pleasure in sleeping — every time she wakes, the 12-year-old can see better than before.

The Jamaican girl has lived her entire life with congenital cataracts clouding her sight. In one eye, she was essentially blinded, only able to take in light. In the other, she was very nearsighted.

Two years ago, when a team of Lynchburg doctors first met Vitara, they were told she was deaf, mute and blind.

Virtually blind, yes, but what was mistaken for deaf and mute was just a heavy dose of shyness in a girl who’s spent her entire life with a severe visual handicap.

“She’s really smart,” Dr. Darin Bowers said. “She’s quiet and shy because she couldn’t see very well.”

Vitara snapped photographs of herself and her mother, Dalvarine Bruce, as they waited in the lobby of Piedmont Eye Center for Bowers and Dr. Remo Lotano to examine her eyes the day after her second surgery.

She took photographs that she would be able to fully see later, to remember the days when the way she saw the world changed so dramatically.

As a nurse coaxed Vitara into reading progressively smaller letters projected on the wall behind her, Lotano said, “20/40 vision on the first day. That’s good.”

Vitara kept turning in the exam chair when asked a question, looking to her mother to answer for her.

The eye that was operated on Tuesday will continue to improve over the span of a week. Both doctors hope her vision will eventually become 20/20.

The other eye, her worse eye, has about 20/50 vision, but she has to turn to the side a bit to see. Lotano said because Vitara has had cataracts for her entire life, one eye may be a bit lazy, but her vision has drastically improved, post-surgery.

Colors are vivid, brighter. The world is much sharper.

Vitara’s eyes were repaired in two separate surgeries held one week apart. Surgery was first performed on her worse eye, the one through which she could only see light. Her other eye was operated on last week. Her vision in that eye was 20/70.

The surgery involves creating a three-millimeter slit in Vitara’s eye. Using ultrasound, the cataract is vacuumed from her eye.

“Hers are soft, like Jell-O,” Bowers said. “They vacuum right out real easy.

“Her eyes will become stronger. The lazy eye is on the right, but the left will be really good.”

Artificial lenses were implanted in her eyes, but Bowers said the lenses are rigid and don’t react like the eye’s normal lens. That’s why she will need reading glasses for focusing on things close up. She is getting fitted for glasses this week.

For the past 10 years, the Central Virginia Medi-cal Missions Team has gone to St. Thomas Parish, Jamai-ca, and work-ed to provide medical, dental and vision care for people who have very limited access to doctors and medicine.

Lotano, a local physician who volunteers with the team, first saw Vitara when she was 10 years old — he knew right away the team needed to find a way to get her surgery that would allow her to see. Jamaican doctors do not have the technology for this kind of operation.

“It took us two years to get her permitted to leave the country,” Lotano said.

Gary Sullivan, a volunteer, said the team, consisting of 30 to 35 medical professionals, is hoping to build a surgery center in Murant Bay to specialize in eye and dental surgeries.

About 90,000 people live in St. Thomas Parish, Jamaica, Sullivan said. So far, the team has seen about 5,000 people, giving them medications, wellness exams, eye exams, glasses and other services.

Jamaicans tend to suffer from high rates of cataracts and glaucoma as a result of sun damage in a country so close to the equator.

“The biggest problem in countries like Jamaica is the lack of medical professionals,” Sullivan said. “We are really blessed in Central Virginia because we have excellent medical care.”

The team’s doctors treat many patients for diabetes and hypertension. The dentists pull teeth all day long to alleviate people’s pain. They provide six months’ worth of medications to every patient. The team gives textbooks and stethoscopes, among other supplies, to the local nursing school.

Vitara’s home is in Yallahs, on the southern coast of Jamaica, and she has three siblings at home. Vitara and her mother have never been away from home before.

Sullivan and his wife, Diane, said they have plenty of room in their house since their children are grown.

Vitara spends time playing games on their computer, and watching television. When she returns to Jamaica, she’ll jump into high school after the year has already begun.

“I know she’ll do better at school,” Gary Sullivan said. “She can reach her potential. At 12 years old, she has a lot more school ahead of her.

“She’s in good health and very bright.”

Vitara reads and writes but her vision impairment meant she struggled a bit in school and had to sit in the front of the classroom.

While awaiting her final exams and her glasses, the Sullivans have taken their guests to several restaurants in town, to the Safari Park at Natural Bridge, and to a Hillcats game.

Vitara ate pizza for the first time, but when asked what she thought about it, she twisted her face into a grimace.

Donations from medical professionals of time, money and surgery space and staff at Virginia Baptist Hospital made it possible to restore Vitara’s vision.

“I feel good,” Bruce said of her daughter’s surgeries. “I feel happy.”

AT A GLANCE
The Central Virginia Medical Missions Team completed its ninth trip to St. Thomas Parish, Jamaica, in March. While there, the team:
• provided medical services for 1,350 people, including 458 children;
• provided dental services for 202 people, including 192 extractions and 59 cleanings;
• provided eye exams for 400 patients, giving 334 pairs of glasses; and
• Filled 2,501 prescriptions.

WANT TO HELP?
The team will hold its annual fundraising golf tournament at the London Downs Golf Course on Saturday, Sept. 25. The registration deadline for the tournament is Sept. 18. The cost is $300 per team, or $75 per person. Dona-tions can also be made in the form of sponsoring holes and greens, or made in memory or honor of someone.

LEARN MORE
• To learn more about the fundraiser, call Diane Sullivan at (434) 525-4936.
• To learn more about the team itself, call Richard Giles at (434) 384-6860.