by Dr. Pedro A.F. Suarez

Ophthalmology Consultant

MCMH

Our Eyes are the windows to the world; we should take care of them especially those of our children.

I would like to take this opportunity that this popular and prestigious newspaper has given me to transmit to the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines certain preoccupations due to the increase in cases seen by the Ophthalmology Department of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH). These cases are a result of serious trauma to our children’s eyes with very unfavourable prognosis in the majority of the times leading to irreversible damage and even blindness. {{more}}

I would have really liked to talk about cataract surgery and of the damage that Diabetes Mellitus causes to the vision of those patients that are affected by the same, as well as glaucoma but that will be in the future.



Taking Care of Children’s Eyes



Today we will concentrate on the necessity of elevating the awareness by parents, guardians, grandparents, teachers and friends of taking care of our children’s eyes. Until our children reach adulthood they have the right and necessity to enjoy a wide variety of games in order to liberate a bit of the excess energy that they possess. We, on the other hand are obliged to warn them and protect them from the possible danger to playing with sticks, stones, pencils, balls etc which in many occasions are capable of accidentally producing irreversible damage.

I could mention some cases seen by us in children between the ages of two to six years, in a time frame of less than one year, with serious injuries to the cornea, traumatic cataracts, retinal detachment etc and others that have been miraculously saved due to our prompt and expert attention, however I will limit myself to just conveying my deepest concerns, as we try to overcome this battle.

It is indeed a sad situation to watch a child grow accompanied by visual limitations due to accidents that are in most cases easily preventable; how about if we all strive to do our best to prevent such from occurring?

All of the aggressions suffered by our eyes by different substances whether physical, chemical or mechanical are potentially dangerous for our vision, an indispensable organ for our development and incorporation to an active society.