Luma

Meet Luma. She's our sponsor child through Mission Emanuel. We met her four years ago on our first trip to the DR. Over the years, we've gotten to know her and her family. She's grown from being really shy and running away from us to now playing with us every chance she gets. When I went to the DR in January 06, I saw that she had an accident. She had been hit in the eye with a baseball. The second picture was taken a few weeks after the accident. Her eye was pretty sensitive to light and hurt quite a bit. After doing some investigating, I found out that she was being taken to the hospital and receiving treatment for it regularly.

Upon returning last summer, Justin and I saw that her eye had healed, but there remained a white cloud over her eye. She says she can see, but not very well. After talking to her parents, we found out that she actually needs a corneal transplant. It costs a lot of money and there is a really long waiting list. We talked with her mom a couple of times and prayed together. It was really hard knowing there wasn't much to be done, but wait.

In August, I went with Jack and Javier (ministry directors) to the Elias Santana Hospital in Los Alcarrizos which is about 45 minutes from Cielo. We were checking out a potential site for a playground build coming up the next year. The hospital also happened to be the opthalmology hospital where Luma had been receiving treatment. So, I asked Jack and Javier if they could find out more about the transplant process. After talking with the administrator, they found out that the DR is no longer harvesting their own corneas. They get them from the US. That's why the wait is so long.

BUT, she said if we could get our own cornea, that might be a different story...

So, where do we find a cornea???

I asked a few people and did some internet research, but basically came up short. It seems you can't just get a cornea on the eye care aisle of CVS.

Fast forward to March (three weeks ago). I'm eating dinner with the group from Ohio State. One of the two adults on the trip strikes up a conversation and mentions that he might need my help with a situation. Jeff proceeds to explain that when he was in the DR last, he met a child who needed a corneal transplant. After describing the child, I realized it was not Luma he had met, but another child in the community. Upon returning to the States, he raised money to help pay for the surgery. But he, like us, wondered where to get a cornea. He said he thought to talk to his dad who is a member of the local Lions Club. He knew that the Lions donated eyeglasses and thought they might be a good resource. During their conversation, his dad tells him, "Oh yeah, the Lions ship corneas all over the world."

As Jeff is telling me all of this, my mouth was gaping open. I was so amazed that we were even having the conversation. I proceed to blurt out Luma's story and together we decide to take action. He needed my help tracking down the child he met and I needed his help with getting the donated cornea. Since we got back, he's been in touch with the Lions Eye Bank in Ohio. I've been in touch with the hospital in the DR. Basically, we just have to get the children in for a consultation and schedule the surgeries. Then, the Ohio Eye Bank talks to the Dominican Eye Bank and the corneas are put on a plane.

Are you as amazed as I am?

There's more. See, the Ohio State trip itself almost didn't happen. The group was originally supposed to come during the spring break week with Wake Forest, Florida, and Massachusetts groups. At the beginning of the semester they found out that the school had changed the week of spring break. So, we canceled the trip.

Then, we talked and reconsidered. In order for us to host a group in the DR, we needed at least 20 people to come. We knew this would be a challenge since only one person from OSU was definitely interested in coming. And she was the one organizing the trip. But eventually they did get a group of 18 and the trip was on. One of the 18 was Jeff. The week before they were supposed to leave, he got sick and almost didn't come.

Almost.