Two elderly men from Molepolole, Botswana, found themselves blessed beyond measure when their vision, once clouded by cataracts, was miraculously restored.
The two men, 72-year-old Modisa Mokgwatlheng from Goo-Modibedi ward and 65-year-old Kefentse Gabatlale from Gamasilwana ward, expressed their profound gratitude towards the St. Coptic Mission from Egypt.
The mission, which partnered with the Scottish Livingstone Hospital (SLH), became their beacon of hope and healing during a time they had almost given up on regaining their sight.
The men shared their stories during the official opening of the Cataract Extraction Campaign at SLH, which started on September 3rd, 2024, and was scheduled to run until September 27th, 2024.
This campaign, a collaborative effort between SLH—renowned for its excellence in ophthalmology services—and the St. Coptic Mission, aimed to reduce the incidence of blindness caused by cataracts and to clear the backlog of cataract patients in the southern part of the country.
For Mokgwatlheng, the journey to blindness was sudden and shocking. He vividly recalled how, after receiving his second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in 2020, his world plunged into darkness.
“My first vaccination was fine,” he recounted, “but after the second one, I lost my sight.
That very evening, I went blind.” Mokgwatlheng returned to Boswelakoko Clinic the next day, hoping for a solution, but his concerns were dismissed, and he was given medication that did nothing to alleviate his condition.
It was only when he was referred to the SLH eye clinic that he found hope, although the operation was scheduled years later, in September 2024.
On September 6th, 2024, Mokgwatlheng’s sight was finally restored. Just four days post-operation, he could hardly contain his joy.
“I was blind, but now I see,” he said, his voice brimming with happiness. He credited his family for their unwavering support in helping him through the recovery process.
Gabatlale’s journey, though different, was equally harrowing.
He first noticed his vision deteriorating in 2019, with his sight gradually worsening each day. By 2020, the sunlight made everything appear dark to him, and he could only see better at night.
Despite seeking help at the hospital, his condition was dismissed, with the nurses making light of his plight.
“Everything I tried to look at appeared like snow,” Gabatlale recalled. His persistence paid off when he heard about the Cataract Extraction Campaign on the radio. Although he was initially turned away because his name wasn’t on the list, fate intervened. A nearby hospital brought fewer patients than expected, and Gabatlale was finally operated on. “Here I am, I can see,” he said with relief, eagerly anticipating the day when his other eye would also be operated on.
The Cataract Extraction Campaign aimed to operate on 900 patients, and as of the men’s testimonies, 302 had already undergone successful surgeries.
This monumental effort continued a legacy of similar initiatives, with previous campaigns achieving remarkable success: 580 patients were operated on by the Chinese team Brightness Action Campaign in June 2015, 208 by Doctors for Life from South Africa in February 2016, 1169 by Shroff from India in August 2018, and 1204 patients in May 2019.
