Artist Victor Mendoza Castillo

Victor Mendoza Castillo of Casa Grande, Peru, whips out his paintbrush and a green, leafy tree takes root on his canvas. Sunlight fills the rooftop studio above his home, where paints, brushes and canvases await his gentle touch.

“Now that I've retired, I spend all my time painting,” Victor says.

Six months before this visit, though, Victor couldn't paint. He couldn't work, he couldn't read, he couldn't do anything independently. Corneal disease aggravated by diabetes had robbed him of his vision.

For two years Victor lived in darkness and dependency, fearful that he'd never see again. The father of two had sadly been through this before, when cataracts stole his vision 12 years earlier. Surgery restored his sight then, but this time was different. Although corneal transplants were performed in northern Peru, tissue was expensive and not readily available.

ORBIS hospital-based program provides transplant training

Victor, his wife, Daisy, and son Leo- nardo in front of one of his paintings.

Fortunately, Victor was examined by Dr. Jaime Huaman of the Instituto Regional de Oftalmologia (IRO) in Trujillo. The IRO has been an ORBIS partner since 2002. Dr. Huaman believed Victor would make an excellent teaching case for an upcoming ORBIS training program. The program included sessions in corneal transplantation.

On December 10, 2007, Victor received his cornea transplant as part of that hospital-based program. ORBIS volunteer faculty member Dr. Richard Casey of the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles, California, conducted the training using transplant tissue obtained by ORBIS.

“It was the best Christmas present I could ever have,” Victor said. “After the surgery, when I woke up the next morning, I was thrilled to be able to see the daylight. Now, thanks to the surgery, I'm able to see people smiling. I'm able to see what people are doing. I'm able to do things I hadn't been able to do in a long time.”

You can help

With your support, more patients in Peru can receive ophthalmic care in their own country, just as Victor did. ORBIS's hospital-based training programs are an essential component of its long-term capacity building projects. At present, 28 million people are blind for conditions that could be corrected. Please give generously. Help save somebody's sight.