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.