Part 29 - Account of cataract operation by a Khampa eye surgeon

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SUMMARY:
A detailed description of a cataract operation performed without anaesthetic by a Khampa eye surgeon, outlining her instruments, technique, and successful outcome. She explains her background: attacked by bandits in Kham, her father blinding a bandit, then training under the Lhasa Menzipa; she practiced on 60 sheep and has completed 87 cataract operations, 66 in Kham.

CONTENT:
Another helper beat two stones together close to the patient's right eye, on which she was operating. This was to make him look right round to the right. Then she had two instruments, a small knife and a very small scoop. She measured the eye by the instruments, and made marks on them so as she would know how far in to go. Then she started, in about 5 minutes the operation was over and the eye bound up. She made a straight dig into the eye, in the white to the inside, then fished round and caught the cataract and pulled it to the side - inside the eye and held it there, while she sprinkled on some yellow medicine, and blew gently on it. She then moved various objects in front of his eye and asked if he could see them, which he could. In a few minutes she withdrew the weapon and that was that - A very well performed operation, done in less time than our people take, no anaesthetic, and the main difference that the cataract remains in the eye, but is not seen, or in the way. I talked to her afterwards. She is a Khampa. Her story is that in Kham she and her father were attacked by bandits and she was knocked down. Her father caught one of the bandits and put his eyes out. Then he told her she must learn how to heal eyes. She learnt from the Lhasa Menzipa (our old friend who gave me his medical book). She practised on 60 sheep before she did a man's eye. She has done now 87 cataract operations, 66 in Kham