Curing and Preventing Blindness in Children

I'm passionate about curing pediatric blindness in the world. My wife and I have adopted three daughters from developing countries who were born blind, through no fault of their own.

Our middle daughter, Jesse, was born with a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity, or ROP. There are over 1.6 million blind children in the world, many who are blind due to ROP.

The tragedy is that almost all of cases of ROP in children can be cured, prevented, or corrected, if diagnosed early enough and treated with the latest technological measures.

Premature babies, preemies, are at most risk for ROP. But most of these babies are born in developing countries, countries who have improved their hospitals and medical personnel to keep these babies alive in their neo-natal care units, but not advanced enough to screen these little ones for ROP and to treat it if found.

ROP is essentially a detachment of the retina due to improper growth of retinal tissue and blood vessels. Proper retinal development requires 40 weeks in utero and in the absence of environmental oxygen. Babies born too early don't get that retinal development time under the proper conditions.

Many pediatric ophthalmologists including Dr. Michael Trese and ROPARD.org are battling ROP and actively engaged in clinical research to eliminate this disease, especially in premature infants. Over the last few years, they have developed innovative new procedures that have been very successful, but more needs to be done. They need our help. They need financial resources to expand the research. You can find out more by visiting ROPARD.org.

I’m hoping and praying that hundreds of young aspiring medical students all over the world will select pediatric ophthalmology as their specialty, with a goal of changing the world through the eyes of the next generation of children over the next twenty years.

To help and treat children who are already blind, visit Christian Blind Mission International, who, since 1908, has been helping the blind in developing countries of the world. CBMI is asking for specific help: An exam for a premature child at risk for ROP is $110 in Peru. Laser treatment for a child with ROP is Peru is $215 per child. If you can help, please visit their web page at http://www.cbmiusa.org.

As CBMI founder, Ernst Jakob Christoffel, stated:

“I walked with a friend once from Pera Street in Constantinople down to Galata Bridge, a distance that can be covered in 15 minutes. When we reached the bridge, I asked my friend how many blind people he had seen. He looked at me amazed and replied: ‘None’. I had seen twelve … In order to see the blind, you need to have open eyes, otherwise the world of the sightless remains hidden. God has opened my eyes.”

Hopefully, God will open your eyes, too.