Information: operationsavingsight@gmail.com or 770-580-3993.
For people diagnosed with cataracts who are living at or below the poverty level, the medical attention they desperately need can be out of reach. Eye Consultants of Atlanta and the Eye Consultants of Atlanta Foundation decided launch a new initiative to address this issue in our community.
Only in its second year, Operation Saving Sight was designed to have ECA surgeons and clinic professionals contribute their time and skills to perform cost-free, sight saving cataract eye surgery at for Georgians.
“Throughout my career, I have always provided free surgeries to those in need and did a lot of mission work internationally,” said Dr. Stephen Hamilton, opthamologist and board chair of OSS. “But we wanted to do something locally and formally. So I started asking everyone in the practice and they were on board to give back.”
Referrals from partner doctors around the state identify patients in need of cataract surgery and are recommended to ECA and OSS. Currently, the OSS team hopes to gather close to 12-15 patients to hold a day of cost-free surgeries in August.
Hamilton envisions OSS growing bigger to help as many Georgians as possible. Surgeries will take place twice a year at ECA’s outpatient surgical center in Atlanta. A vetting process will take place in which 30-40 patients will be chosen to receive surgery, pre and post-op appointments, and medication – all at no cost.
Though the general community cannot participate directly, Hamilton encourages spreading the word or making donations to the foundation as a whole to support OSS and its other programs such as teaching those who are visually impaired or blind to read Braille.
The motivation, to Hamilton, is more than just giving back. “We do it because we love them,” he said.
In other news: Fifth Third Bank (Georgia) recently held its second annual Strike Out Hunger! campaign aimed at feeding Atlanta and Augusta-area families in need. The food drive ran from April 13 to May 1, and the bank delivered all donations, along with a corporate donation of 1,590 meals, to both the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Golden Harvest Food Bank. Additionally, employees within the Georgia affiliate volunteered to sort over 5,300 meals at the Atlanta Community Food Bank; feed over 300 homeless men lunch and dinner at the Atlanta Union Mission; served meals to nearly 400 families at the Collins United Methodist Church; and packed weekend meals for over 1,000 students in need for the Golden Harvest Food Bank in Augusta.
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