In January of 2013 Florida doctor Carey Rowan was among a
“I was doing the surgery part in this little hospital. It was all sanitized, but like they do it in Russia with three surgeons operating in the same room and two assistants each,” said Rowan.
In the U.S. cataract surgery takes 7–9 minutes with a special machine. In Leticia, there was no machine so the operation took around 20 minutes, however the surgeons still managed to complete 25 to 30 operations a day.
According to Rowan there is a huge shortage of ophthalmologists
The mission was organized by the Christian group Medical Ministry International, which organizes medical interventions in 22 countries around the world. The system works, according to the surgeon because it is a blitzkrieg operation and “the volunteers just have to leave their families and their work for two weeks then they can come back. Also with
The group has been to Leticia maybe five or six times, according to Rowan, and he intends to go back again. “I am addicted,” he said. “In the coming years we will go further into the jungle, closer to the tribes. We took a little excursion up there this time and it was a several-hour trip on a fast boat. They don’t have fast boats to come to us.”