Patient Stories

Meet Doraswamy, a tailor by profession, the breadwinner of a family of four. Being a tailor, his skills and his eyesight were once his greatest asset. For many years he seemed to be living a normal life and doing well providing for his family.

But unbeknown to many, for more than fifteen years Doraswamy was suffering from an eye problem that he was treated with medicines and drops. Over time these treatments stopped working and his vision got worse, with complaints of blurred vision and inability to open his eyes in bright light.  As his vision got compromised, he was no longer able to work as a tailor.  He could not even thread a needle by himself.

Doctor Jagdesh C. Reddy from Tej Kohli Cornea Institute discovered that Doraswamy has developed corneal scarring in the front part of the eyes, which was causing intense blurring and watery eyes when exposed to bright lights. The epidemiology of corneal blindness encompasses a wide range of inflammatory and infectious eye diseases that leads to corneal scarring, which ultimately causes blindness.  Both of Doraswamy’s eyes had developed black spots, so the anterior layers of the cornea needed to be removed.

With technological advances in the diagnostic, surgical, and nonsurgical treatment available in Swarna Bharat Eye Centre in Nellore district, a secondary centre of Tej Kohli Foundation, Doraswamy was, fortunately, able to receive treatment from experts.  The bumpy irregular layers from his eyes were removed with extreme caution and precision to avoid any sort of perforation.

Doraswamy is fine now and as his vision continued to improve as a result of intervention by the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute, he wishes to resume his tailoring services and earn money for his family.

The story of Doraswamy is not an isolated one. There are millions of Doraswamys out there, who are fighting against needless blindness and desperate to get treated so that they can get back to living a normal life.

Life is hard for people with blindness or impaired vision. Especially for people living in remote areas where they lack access to eye health services. Poverty and blindness are always closely linked. People from low-income backgrounds have a lack of access to and limited ability to pay for services when they are available, which was the case for Meera.

Meera hails from a low-income family in India, where she, along with her husband, work hard to make ends meet. She is a perfectly healthy woman, but unfortunately, she had become blind.

Meera was not blind by birth, but her vision started to deteriorate many years ago until she became blind. The symptoms were so slow that she didn’t realize that she would end up blind if she did not seek treatment. At first her eyes started to turn red and slowly became white. Then before she could realise the seriousness of what was happening, her eyesight was gone completely.

Her sudden vision loss made Meera’s life very difficult as she needed help with everything. To move around, she inched step-by-step carefully while hanging on to her husband`s arm.  She was completely dependent and isolated.

Meera’s consulted local doctors only to find out that her poverty impeded her treatment. She was informed that an operation was needed to treat her, but it was too expensive for her poor family and success was not guaranteed. Meera felt helpless because of her inability to pay such a hefty treatment cost. They lost all hope and surrendered the fate of a vicious cycle that left Meera unable to work to earn the money she needed for treatment.

After 5 years of being blind, a doctor told Meera about the Tej Kohli Cornea Institute, and her journey towards renewal of hope and vision began. Meera was soon diagnosed with Glaucoma, a condition that damages the optical nerve and which is ranked as the second leading cause of blindness after cataract by the WHO.  Meera also had Schelo Keratitis, a rare condition where the cornea becomes inflamed or swollen.

The Tej Kohli Cornea Institute offered to treat her at no cost and successfully operated on Meera. Today, Meera has completely regained her vision and confidence. Her children and her husband trust and support her decision to seek help from Tej Kohli Cornea Institute.