• Submitted by: admin
• Health and Medicine
• 07 / 02 / 2007

More than 3,200 Panamanians have undergone surgery at the Omar Torrijos Herrera Ophthalmologic Center donated by Cuba to the Central American nation as part of the Operation Miracle free eye-surgery program, mainly for low-income Latin Americans, promoted by the Caribbean island and Venezuela.

Dr. Julio Yamel Verdecia, director of the center located in the province of Veraguas, explained that around 70 people are operated upon every day. He said that out of the 3,200 patients that have received surgery so far, 2,000 of them were operated upon for pterygium while more than 1,000 were operated upon for cataract.

He added that the center was inaugurated last March and that the staff of the clinic is comprised of 27 Cuban workers, including six ophthalmologists, nurses and specialists as well as Panamanian experts who have joined the initiative.

Verdecia noted that they receive patients from different provinces and that nearly 7,000 people have been diagnosed.

"Our work has had an incredible impact because we are solving the problem of thousands of people who do not have the financial resources to do it somewhere else," he stressed.

Source: Cubanews.ain.cu