LV eye doctor sees need for care, fills it

Saturday, March 6, 2004 | 1:53 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: March 7, 2004

A Las Vegas ophthalmologist recently returned from a medical eye mission to Lascahobas, a remote town outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Dr. Kenneth C. Westfield joined ophthalmologists, nurses and technicians for a five-day mission to treat more than 700 patients.

"Things we take for granted in the U.S. can result in total blindness there when medical care is not accessible," Westfield said.

Westfield, medical director of the Shearing-Westfield Eye Institute in Las Vegas, makes the trek to Lascahobas annually to treat patients who are blinded by cataracts, in the early stages of glaucoma or simply need eyeglasses.

The medical equipment Westfield hauled to the village 45 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, was left as a donation to Lascahobas Hospital, a 60-bed facility that serves the nearly 56,000 people in the area. The hundreds of eyeglasses he brings -- unclaimed by those who have left them in Las Vegas hotel rooms -- are fitted and given to those with poor eyesight.

To the villagers he seems to be a miracle worker, a godsend who comes once a year and literally restores sight to the blind. Hundreds line up to see him when he arrives.

Westfield, who has also volunteered for similar missions in Africa, South America and Mexico, found the need in Lascahobas to be "the greatest I have ever seen."

"Physical conditions such as malnutrition, especially Vitamin A deficiency, cataracts, glaucoma, malaria and intestinal infestation were the most common encountered," he said.

The February mission resulted in 718 patient exams, 78 surgeries and hundreds of pairs of glasses being distributed in five days of work.