Up until earlier this month, seven-year-old Tamim Islam’s parents had no idea that he could only see up to about one metre. It was only when a doctor visited the school Tamim was at that he was diagnosed with an eye ailment. “He blinked constantly and always held books very close to his face. But we didn’t realise there was a problem,” said Abdus Samad Sheik, his father.
The family first went to a nursing home near their village in Haranagar Barobhege in West Bengal, and were then referred to Kolkata. “The doctors told me he needed a surgery but I wasn’t sure how well they would do it there. A man from my village then recommended I come to Chennai,” said Mr. Sheik who works in a factory in Mumbai.
With just a slip of paper with the name of a hospital, Mr. Sheik and his son came to Chennai – knowing no one and with no place to stay. An auto from Central Station brought them to Rajan Eye Care, where he was diagnosed with congenital ectopia lentis, a rare condition in which the lenses in both eyes were not in the centre but had been displaced to other parts of the eye.
“Globally, this condition affects one in 100,000 children. We decided to operate on both eyes and instead of re-centering the original lens which is a tedious process, we put in artificial lenses – glued intraocular lenses. The right eye was done on April 20 and the left eye on Thursday. Tamim’s vision is now about 75 per cent, and we are hoping he will regain complete vision in about six months,” said Mohan Rajan, chairman and medical director, Rajan Eye Care, who along with Sujatha Mohan, executive medical director, performed the surgeries.
Since Tamim had not been able to see very well for years, both his eyes had become ‘lazy’ said Dr. Sujatha, but would now improve. “Ectopia lentis often occurs in children with Marfan syndrome – a connective tissue disorder. The connective tissues in the eyes that hold the lenses in place were missing in his case, causing the problem,” she said. The surgery cost around Rs. 1.5 lakh, said Dr. Mohan. “But we have asked the family to only pay for the anaesthesia and the medication. The procedure was performed free,” he said.
Wearing a pair of dark glasses, Tamim jumped about the hospital room, looking at photographs of his eyes before the surgery. “He can see much better now,” his father said, “and we are hoping to go home as soon as the doctor says he is fit to leave.”
