Members of Lion’s Club with Antonio Laragay (4th from left).
WALKING in the dark at night is difficult enough. Walking your whole life in the dark is a nightmare.
With its goal of restoring the gift of sight, one civic organization has recently given such gift to one person in the hope of being able to see clearly again.
The Cebu Lions Club, Cebu Sinulog Lions Club (through Lion Felix Taguiam), and Cebu Centennial Lions Club (through Lion Jason Yap) provided medical and financial assistance in the aid of Antonio Ligaray for his cornea transplant operation last February 3, 2014. The procedure was intended to replace his damaged cornea with a new one retrieved from a deceased donor by the Lions Medical Eye Bank of the Philippines Foundation.
Lions club members were able came up with the aid necessary for Ligaray to receive treatment. The patient was operated at Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital by Dr. George Christopher Chan, consulting eye physician and Medical Director of the Lions Medical Eye Bank. Assisting him was Chief Ophthalmology Resident Dr. Luisa Ko.
Ligaray, a 46-year old resident of Mandaue City, Cebu, met an industrial accident in 1997, injuring both eyes, with the left eye being unable to see. He underwent a cornea transplant on 2007 for this left eye but the transplant failed. Then last month, he accidentally hit his right eye with his finger, sought consult and referred to Cebu Cataract Foundation, where he was required an emergency cornea transplant to restore his sight.
The Cebu Lions Club endeavors to the objective of the Lions Clubs International Foundation to restore the gift of sight through various projects ranging from free eye consultations, providing free eyeglasses to sponsoring eye surgeries for charity patients. Together with the club is the Lions Medical Eye Bank of the Philippines Foundation, founded in 2007 under the leadership of SightFirst Chairperson Elizabeth Yang, with its office located at Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital. The Lions Medical Eye Bank works to retrieve donor corneas for transplant and to advocate the importance of cornea donation upon death to make use of the thin outer layer of the eye (the cornea) to bring back the sense of sight for its recipients.
Ligaray is currently on follow-up consultations to monitor progress from the transplant. He is already able to see and is able to walk on his own.