New York Times Journalist Profiles HCP
Pulitzer prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof joined Drs. Sanduk Ruit and Geoff Tabin in Hetauda, Nepal to witness firsthand the profound effect of cataract surgery in the developing world.
Excerpt from the New York Times column: In 5 Minutes, He Lets the Blind See
I’m on my annual win-a-trip journey, in which I take a university student with me on a trip to the developing world to cover underreported issues. The student, Austin Meyer of Stanford University, and I traveled to Hetauda in southern Nepal to watch Dr. Ruit perform his magic on 102 men and women.
One patient was Thuli Maya Thing, a woman of 50 who says she has struggled to look after her children since losing her sight to cataracts in the last few years. Because of her blindness and inability to work, the family sometimes goes hungry.
“I can’t fetch firewood or water,” Thuli Maya told me. “I can’t cook food. I fall down many times. I’ve been burned by the fire.”
So Thuli Maya was waiting outside the eye hospital that Dr. Ruit has established here, nervous but also eager with anticipation. “I will be able to see my children and husband again — that’s what I look forward to most,” she said.
Read the rest of Thuli Maya's story in Kristof's full article here.
