45 million people in the world are blind, but 80 percent don’t need to be. A cure is often simple and inexpensive, but in poor countries, help is often out of reach. ORBIS UK is a London-based affiliate of ORBIS International. ORBIS UK is committed to bringing sight-saving care to the developing world.

On approaching the flying eye hospital, it looks like any of the other passenger jets on the runway waiting to take holidaymakers to exotic destinations. But this DC-10 jet is exceptional – it houses the only airborne operating theatre for eye treatment in the world.

Its mission is to tackle avoidable sight loss and its charter reaches developing countries where 90% of the world’s 45 million blind people live. Next stop is India, a country that has one of the highest rates of blindness among children – one in five of the world’s blind children is Indian.

Hospital with wings
The flying eye hospital was the vision of one man, Dr David Paton, an eminent eye surgeon at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, US.

In the 1970s, while touring throughout the developing world, he was shocked by the state of eye care services he found in these countries.

Although the doctors he met there wanted to learn the necessary skills to cure blinding diseases like cataracts, glaucoma and retinoblastoma, the costs and practicalities involved prevented it. Dr Paton’s solution was a mobile teaching hospital.

With a fully equipped plane, donated by United Airlines, doctors trained in the latest ophthalmic techniques could bring their surgical knowledge and skills to the doctors and patients in developing countries.

• The local doctors can then use their newly learned skills in their homeland.
• The first hospital with wings was launched in 1982, its maiden voyage being to Panama.
• Since then, the flying eye hospital has visited 75 countries and saved the sight of tens of millions of people.

View video footage of the Orbis flying eye hospital courtesy of the BBC web site

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