The Gift of Sight

On Nov. 8, a group drawn from the College and local communities gathered at Dick's House for Dartmouth College Health Service's donation of ophthalmology equipment to the nonprofit organization Global Health Cares (GHC). "This is serendipity, things have happened just as we needed them," says Chris Fields, an optometrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and president of GHC, which he cofounded with Jay Jordan, an optometrist in private practice in Rochester, N.H.

Fields's organization is working to improve health care in southwestern Nicaragua, in part by replacing outdated and inadequate equipment in two hospitals. With the aid of the Rotary Club of Woodstock, Vt., GHC has been gathering donated medical equipment that it will ship to Nicaragua for arrival in spring 2007.

Dartmouth's contribution is a slit-lamp bio-microscope, which is an essential tool for eye examinations, and an ophthalmologist's chair. "We found over the last few years that we had reduced use for the equipment," says Jack Turco, director of the College Health Service. "But it is in excellent condition and we felt that it could be put to much better use by donating it to a worthy cause."

Fields estimates that a slit-lamp alone would cost $15,000 to purchase new. This donation, he says, will provide the community hospital in Rivas, Nicaragua, with the equipment it needs to offer eye-care services.

By SARAH MEMMI

Questions or comments about this article? We welcome your feedback.