Trip helps bring sight to those who could not see

Two area women brought help to those in need as part of a recent mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

Betty Herrell and Diane Solberg of HealthView Eye Care Center in Medford and Colby took part in a mission trip with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) to the Dominican Republic January 13 to 21. This was Herrell’s third trip as part of the program and Solberg’s first.

“It was very eye-opening,” Solberg said, noting that while it is cliche to say something is life-changing that is how she described the trip.

Solberg said she had seen displays and information about VOSH at trainings and it was something she had hoped to do some day.

“It was more than what I anticipated,” Solberg said. The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The official language of the nation of 12 million is Spanish with agriculture in the form of sugar, coffee and tobacco a major industry. In recent years, the service sector and tourism have overtaken agriculture as the largest employer.

Poverty is endemic in the country with the median income of just $318 per month. A medical doctor in the Dominican Republic makes about $14,000 per year.

According to Herrell, the trip focused on the isolated mountain community of Rancho Arriba, which is located in the the province of San José de Ocoa and has a population of about 10,000 people.

On the VOSH trip, the team consisted of 11 people including three optometrists, one dentist, six paraoptometric assistants, and one dental assistant.

While both women are paraoptometric assistants with HealthView, when on the trip, there was a need for additional help on the dental side. Early in her career Solberg had worked as a dental assistant for a few years and was put to work helping provide dental care.

Herrell noted that providing dental care was something new added for this mission.

They were supported by a large team of locals from the Dominican Republic including the Mayor of Rancho Arriba and two representatives, government support coordinators, translators, cooks, bus drivers and security guards as well as nursing students.

The team spent six days in Rancho Arriba working out of a Middle/High School. They had three rooms of the school to utilize, one for optometric exams, one for optical dispensing and fitting of eyeglasses, and one for dental care. Herrell praised the work of the local contacts and the coordinators with the local government with the support they were able to provide.

The optical team performed, 1,158 eye exams and dispensed roughly 1,400 pairs of glasses and sunglasses to patients from the age of two to 92. Herrell noted that with the country located in the tropics there is a significant need for sunglasses to protect eyes from sun damage.

Herrell recounted the story of a farmer in his mid-60s who came in complaining of headaches and was found to need a prescription of minus 16. “He could see clearly only three to four inches from his face,” Herrell said.

She said the doctor wrote the prescription and told her to try to fit him with the strongest thing they had. She said they had a minus 12 in their stock and were able to get him three-quarters of the way to having corrected vision.

She also gave the example of a little girl with cerebral palsy who was not verbal who had a minus four prescription, which she said was very strong for a sixyear-old. She said they were able to fit her with a pair that was minus two. Herrell said she still remembers the beaming smile on the girl’s happy face when getting her glasses.

The prescription glasses and reading glasses were used eyeglasses donated from around the state of Wisconsin to the Lions Clubs. The Lions volunteers sort through all the donations by prescription.

“With such great vision needs around the world and domestically, we encourage anyone who is able to, to donate their used eyeglasses to their local Lions Clubs,” Herrell and Solberg said.

“Betty and I want to offer our thanks and appreciation to the Medford, Abbotsford, Colby, Dorchester and Waupun Lions Clubs for helping to support our mission trip,” they said.

Each of the paraoptometric teams brought a suitcase filled with 300 pairs of glasses, Approximately 2,000 pairs of glasses were transported to the Dominican Republic along with suitcases filled with eye exam equipment, dental equipment, and even a portable dental chair. Some of the equipment was able to be left in the Dominican Republic for future mission trips. The team also left behind non-prescription sunglasses, reading glasses and children’s glasses.

Solberg said she was amazed at the amount of equipment that gets transported by the people on the mission trip, noting that in many cases you can’t ship them on their own. She said the optometrist even brought their own refractory equipment.

In addition to the prescription glasses the women brought, they also brought many sunglasses and readers which were donated by one of the doctors on the trip.

The dental team saw 54 patients and extracted 84 teeth on patients from the ages 4 to 94. The dental hygiene and care is so poor that decay, abscessed teeth and bone loss was prevalent. Many toothbrushes were distributed along with samples of dental floss and toothpaste.

Solberg said dental health was very poor in the area and said that with the time available and level of decay, extractions were about the only thing possible.

Solberg did get some time working in the dispensary fitting glasses and talked of the many smiles of gratitude on the faces of the people.

“This lady just wraps me in this huge, big hug. Gosh, it makes your heart feel good,” Solberg said.

In addition to helping patients, those on the trip had a tour of the region including piling into 4x4 vehicles and traveling up what Solberg described as being essentially a UTV trail higher into the mountains to visit a coffee plantation. Along the way, they passed huts she said were no more than sheds where the workers lived.

She said they would be traveling along this narrow road and come to a stop at where there would be a donkey loaded with bags of coffee beans and no room to pass. “Who needs a ride at Disney when we have this going,” Solberg said of the ride to the plantation.

“I was astounded by the old equipment and how much is done manually,” Solberg said. Much of the coffee grown in the Dominican Republic is sent to Europe where it is roasted and ground.

The cost of the VOSH mission trips is covered by those taking part in it. Solberg and Herrell thanked those that helped make it possible for them to be able to go on the trip.

“We are also thankful to HealthView Eye Care Center for their financial support and the support of our teams which allowed us this opportunity to provide the gift of vision and dental care to the people of the Dominican Republic,” they said.

Betty Herrell with one of the patients she worked with.

Diane Solberg with one of the patients she worked with.