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Annual Report 2015 of P LIGHT the blind The plight of the poor blind is heartrending. Their life is nasty, brutish and short. They live off the scraps from the table of others often reduced to begging on the streets to survive. The tragedy is that the suffering is unnecessary as 80% of blindness is curable. The situation in 1984, the year when our founders Graham Layton and Zaka Rahmatulla were retiring was stark: An estimated 20 % of the population was affected either by blindness or impaired vision. Of this 1.8% were blind. The Prevalence of blindness and impaired vision was 3 x higher among the poor (vs. the affluent) Although 80 % of blindness was curable the pool was growing as most of the blind lived around the poverty line, had limited or no access to Government’s ophthalmological facilities and could not afford the cost of the treatment in the private sector. The life span of the blind was significantly lower of PLIGHTthe blind And then there was Moved by their plight Graham Layton and Zaka Rahmatulla established the Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) in December 1984 dedicating it to the prevention of curable blindness. LRBT began operations through a mobile unit in light November 1985 A network of hospitals in deprived areas with no or ineffective Govt. facilities focusing on those living around the poverty line Ensuring that women get equal treatment There is no discrimination on any basis Treatment is appropriate state of the art. Charity should never mean second rate treatment Patients should be treated with compassion & dignity DTrheeair m No man, woman or child should go blind simply because they cannot afford the treatment MiTshse ion 30 Years later we have grown to a network of 18 hospitals and 54 clinics which are located in such a way that most Pakistanis are within a 3 hour bus ride of an LRBT Facility . Korangi North Karachi Rashidabad Tando Bago Gambat Pasrur Arifwala Akora Khattak Odigram Karachi Disco More, Hyderabad, Badin, Tharparkar, Khairpur, Dadu, Pasrur, Sialkot, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Nowshera, Malakand, Karachi East, Nagan Chowrangi, Sanghar, Thatta Sukkur, Larkana, Narowal, Bahawalnagar, Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Upper Karachi West, Katti Pahari, Nawab Shah, Shikarpur, Gujranwala Okara, Vehari Charsadda, Dir, Low Dir Karachi South, Surjani Town, Mirpurkhas 94,722 Naushahro Feroze, Peshawar, Attock Karachi Central, 79,348 124,313 136,780 Anda More, Rahim Yar Khan 156,939 Malir Gulberg 124,752 161,217 490,185 112,958 l a t i p s o h r e p e c n a m r o f r e p D P O l a t o T Mansehra Quetta Lar Mansehra, Quetta, Pishin, Shahpur Bhawalpur, Batgram, Chagai, Zhob, Chiniot Sargodha, Khushab, Mandra Khanewal D.G. Khan, Muzaffarabad, Loralai, Killa Sibi Chiniot, Faisalabad, Lahore Mianwali, Jhelum, Chakwal, Jhelum, Khanewal, Muzaffargarh, Azad Jammu Saifullah, Kalat, Sibi, Pindi Bhattian, Kasur, Lahore, Chakwal, Mandi Rawalpindi, Azad Vihari, Rajanpur, Kashmir, Killa Saifullah, Naseerabad, Gojra, Jhang, Sheikhupura Bahauddin Kashmir Faisalabad Multan, Layyah Abbotabad Mastung, Panjgur Jafarabad Sargodha 429,233 95,311 136,098 92,351 202,461 86,534 104,492 9,515 20,710 Spreading Imthe ligpht: act In these years, LRBT 30 has treated: over 30 million Performed 3.1 We are the largest provider patients in OPD million surgeries of eye care in the country 14.4 million Males 1.6 million Males Treating 36% of all eye patients. 15.6 million Females 1.5 million Females Performing 27.4% of eye surgeries of the 30 million, 92 % of surgeries performed were 3 million were children for cataract and the visual outcomes And 32% of all Pediatric eye surgeries. exceed the WHO/International Centre for Eye Health benchmark for good quality by 6 percentage points All Treatment is free of all charges for the poor In Huma n Terms LRBT’s treatment of 30 million patients has indirectly improved the life of 30 million families With their vision restored LRBT’s direct beneficiaries are now able to earn Rs.500 billion annually Our efforts have contributed to the reduction in the Prevalence of Blindness and Impaired Vision by half Blindness from 1.8 to 0.9% Impaired vision from 18% to 9% Akbar Ali was born with normal vision but due to high fever he lost his sight. Coming from a poor background his family was devastated. When Akbar was 15 years old, LRBT transformed his life by corneal g grafting, gave him hope and a future he no longer dreads. n Today Akbar works in a i factory, earns enough to be able to support his family. “It gives me m nightmares when r I think of my life when I was not able o to see. I hated those f days and wanted to end my life. s Thank you LRBT for n giving me back my vision enabling me to a ives live the respectable life r I am living today. LT Ghulam Mustafa was 4 years old when he started having eye issues. His father was jobless at that time but as Ghulam Mustafa was his only child he kept borrowing money for his eye checkups and consulted many doctors. At 5 years his cataract was confirmed but they couldn’t afford the costs of surgery. They ultimately found their way to a LRBT hospital where Ghulam Mustafa was operated “I study in grade 9 successfully today. Not only am I a good student but I am very active in extracurricular activities specially cricket and football. I can never thank LRBT enough for what I am today. “From the depth of darkness & despair we have emerged into the bright light of hope. We had all accepted it as kismet but were fortunate enough to have access to LRBT which changed our lives forever. Qurat ul ain, Abeera, Ather and Fatima Qurat ul ain, Abeera, Ather and Fatima are from a family of 8. Only 2 out of the 6 siblings had normal eye sight. Their father was retired and had just his pension to support the family. The mother supplemented his pension by selling homemade pickles. All 4 suffered from corneal dystrophy and edema as a result of which their vision was very limited. They required corneal transplants which were carried out at LRBT’s Korangi hospital. This has transformed their lives: Qurat ul ain now works in a bank, Abeera gives home tuitions whilst Ather & Fatima are in the second year at College. The sun is shining once again. The future is no longer dark and forbidding. Diagnostic Tests & Procedures Oculo-Plastic Services Cornea and External Eye Disease LRBT has the best equipped eye hospitals in the country which treat Cataract the entire spectrum of eye diseases. Lacrimal Disorder This is why every day more than 8000 patients visit our facilities to Uveitis avail the following treatments: Glaucoma Our Pediatric Eye Care Orbital Disorder Retinal Diseases including Diabetic Retinopathy & Services Macular Degeneration Our journey started with simple cataract extraction surgeries in LRBT network of hospitals are 1985 which over the years equipped with state of the art progressed to Intraocular Lens Implantation and at present we are technological equipment including: doing advanced phacoemulsification surgeries with Slit Lamp SL D7 with Camera Beam foldable and premium multifocal Splitter & Co-Observation Tube and toric IOL’s. along with MSICS Spectrum Domain Optical Coherence (Manual Small Incision Cataract Tomography (SD_OCT) Surgery). MSICS is a low cost technique which gives visual Fundus Fluoroscein Angiography (FFA) outcomes comparable with Phacoemusification and is suitable Electroretinography (ERG) for developing counties. Testing system Electrooculography (EOG) system Vitreoretinal surgery is a skill which is mastered by few. At our Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) Tertiary Eye Hospitals we are Testing system doing delicate Macular surgeries with the help of high speed Digital Retinal Camera vitrectomy system Constellation by suture less 27+.G Micro Orb Scan Galiie Dual Incision Vitrectomy. Vitreo retinal Scheimpflug Analyzer diagnostic facilities are also Operating Microscope, enhanced by the presence of SD- OMS 800 Standard OCT, HRT and Retinal Angiography machines. Carl Zeiss Lumera 700 Operating microscope Orbital and oculoplastic surgeries like orbital implants and free skin Operating Microscope, grafts and lid reconstructive OFFISS-800, Topcon surgeries. Phacoemulsification-Centurion, Alcon Paediatric Ophthalmology Phacoemulsification, CataRhex-3 demands high skills and sophisticated equipment. We are Constellation Vision System for VR fully equipped with all high-tech diagnostic facilities like Electro Faros Surgery System for VR Physiologic Tests (VEP, ERG, Photo coagulator / Argon Green Laser EOG) and offer all the spectrum Technological of Paediatric surgeries. Pascal Pattern Laser Corneal Transplant surgery is a Micro pulse Laser - Solid regular feature at our hospitals but State Supra 810 the acute shortage of donor cornea is a major drawback as people do not donate their organs “The Clinical and Technical side after death in our country. We are, of the LRBT programme is therefore, dependent on corneas extremely impressive”. imported from Srilanka which fall Sight Savers International’s Development far short of the requirements. Evaluation report Post Graduate Training programme LRBT’s 2 Tertiary Hospitals at Lahore and Korangi (Karachi) run the largest programme in Pakistan for FCPS/MCPS in Ophthalmology. We run 4 separate programmes: l FCPS in General Ophthalmology, l FCPS in Vitreo Retina l FCPS in Pediatric Ophthalmology. l MCPS in General Opthalmology There are currently 46 Doctors in these programmes. A total of 157 Doctors have qualified so far. Training of Midlevel Health Workers LRBT set up its own School of Opthalmic Para medicine in January 2011 to augment the availability of trained/qualified midlevel health workers. It is recognized by Sindh Medical Faculty and is also affiliated to Human Jinnah Medical University through Jinnah Medical College Hospital for students from other provinces.

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