Eye Bank in India. That's corneal surgeon and star pupil
Ameeta Jabbar with Dr. Rostov in both photos.
Dr. Rostov lifted her scalpel and paused as a nurse placed an ice pack on her neck. At 100% humidity, the 95 degree heat made the operating room feel more like a slow cooker. The doctor took quick, grateful gulps from a juice box offered by a surgical resident. She blinked to clear the sweat from her vision, handed the empty box back, and bent back to her surgery as her colleagues in India pressed closer to watch. In the still, sticky heat of the tiny room, her audience of six felt more like 60.
That's my retelling of Dr. Rostov's description of what a cramped operating room at the very southern tip of India feels like to a Seattle native. Dr. Rostov traveled to the Little Flower Hospital in Angamaly last May with four transplant corneas from our SightLife eye bank. She returned minus some expensive surgical instruments that she donated to the hospital, but with new friendships and new hope for 10 million men, women, and children in developing countries who suffer needlessly from curable corneal blindness.
Back in India, four individuals have their sight back. Her colleague, Dr. Ameeta Jabbar, uses surgical techniques learned from Dr. Rostov to restore sight to more of her fellow citizens. The two surgeons continue to trade e-mails and knowledge, which Dr. Jabbar passes on to the residents that she, in turn, trains.
Over the years, Dr. Rostov has supported SightLife's work to spread a cure for blindness in these additional ways:
