{"id":108,"date":"2010-10-26T10:37:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T10:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/eyecarecaribbean\/2010\/10\/26\/kenneth-higgins-story\/"},"modified":"2010-10-26T10:37:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T10:37:39","slug":"kenneth-higgins-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/our-work-in-jamaica\/kenneth-higgins-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Cataract Surgery – How CCB helped Kenneth Higgins get his sight back."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mr. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a brand new man\u201d- These were the words of Kenneth Higgins who smiled from ear to ear, twenty four (24) hours after vision was restored to his left eye following cataract surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Higgins, 79, had been down this road before. In April 2010 he had cataract surgery on his right eye and following a successful operation, he immediately knew that he would soon be back to \u201ctake care\u201d of his other eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it was that on October 11, 2010, Higgins again travelled from his home in the parish of Clarendon to the Eye Clinic at the Mandeville Regional Hospital located in the neighbouring Parish of Manchester.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Accompanied by his wife, Higgins sat in the crowded Waiting Room and patiently waited for his name to be called for the routine pre-op examinations of eye and blood pressure checks. <\/span>While waiting him shared his story: <\/span>\u201cI am now retired; when I worked I did a lot of things; I worked overseas; I was a driver; I worked in a Post Office but I started to slow down when my eyes started acting up\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

 <\/span>During a routine check up on his eyes some years ago, he was diagnosed with cataracts. While still leading an active life, his eyesight started to fail. <\/span>\u201cThe cataract made me half blind, I couldn’t see properly \u2026at first they said it was not dangerous but it eventually got worse. I started reading and all of a sudden I saw shadows and all the words were mixed together. It didn’t really prevent me from doing some tasks but it was still hard and eventually I knew that I had to take them (the cataracts) out\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/span>On this particular morning , after all the necessary checks, Higgins and other cataract patients made their way to the Operating Theatre for the much anticipated surgery. <\/span>I am ready, I have faith and I have a great surgeon, so why worry,\u201d he said as he was being led to the Theatre\u201d. <\/span>The surgery performed by Dr Gavin Henry was completed in approximately 30 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Derived from the Greek term for “white water falling,” cataract is a degenerative eye condition likened to watching the world through a waterfall. The lens becomes so cloudy that it can no longer focus light on the retina. <\/span>On leaving the Theatre, a still upbeat Kenneth Higgins promised to return to the Clinic early the following morning. <\/span>And so, twenty four hours later, he took the journey from his home in Clarendon. Once at the Clinic, the Nurse removed the bandage from his eye and with that he could not contain his gratitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cWe have the best Clinic in the world;  I am so happy now;  I rested so well last night\u2026.there was no pain at all; I have a very good Doctor……I can\u2019t help but talk about it\u201d. <\/span>The final step was taken when Dr Henry examined his patient and with a nod of approval signaled that he was satisfied with the outcome of the surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Such stories are always heartening for members of the hardworking Staff at the Eye Clinic. On that morning, the words of Kenneth Higgins resonated throughout the building as he left \u201c I will say it again and again; I am so happy; I can see clearly \u2013 I can see so well; I can even string a needle!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

{besps}\/kenneth-higgins\/{\/besps}<\/p>\n

{besps_c}0| cataract-removed-replaced-by-artificial-lens.jpg | | Cataract removed and replaced by artificial lens{\/besps_c}<\/span><\/p>\n

{besps_c}0| eye-prepared-for-removal-of-cataract.jpg | | Eye prepared for removal of cataract {\/besps_c}<\/span><\/p>\n

{besps_c}0| kenneth-higgins.jpg | | Mr. Kenneth Higgins{\/besps_c}<\/span><\/p>\n

{besps_c}0| mandeville-eye-clinic-patient-being-examined.jpg | | Mandeville Eye Clinic patient being examined{\/besps_c} <\/span><\/p>\n

{besps_c}0| mandeville-regional-hospital-entrance.JPG |  | Mandeville Regional Hospital entrance{\/besps_c}
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI feel like a brand new man\u201d- These were the words of Kenneth Higgins who smiled from ear to ear, twenty four (24) hours after vision was restored to his left eye following cataract surgery. Higgins, 79, had been down this road before. In April 2010 he had cataract surgery on his right eye and following a successful operation, he immediately knew that he would soon be back to \u201ctake care\u201d of his other eye. So it was that on October 11, 2010, Higgins again travelled from his home in the parish of Clarendon to the Eye Clinic at the Mandeville Regional …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[91,92,93,89,88,87,90],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-work-in-jamaica","tag-cataract-surgery","tag-dr-gavin-henry","tag-eye-care-caribbean","tag-jamaica","tag-mandeville-eye-clinic","tag-mandeville-regional-hospital","tag-mr-kenneth-higgins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyecarecaribbean.com\/site\/ecc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}