Boy, 7, facing blindness gets life-changing eye surgery: Such a blessing

A 7-year-old boy in West Africa who was going blind can now see again, thanks to life-changing eye surgery provided by the Mercy Ships charity.Mamadou, whose last name was not provided, was born with bilateral cataracts, a condition in which cataracts develop in both eyes before birth or soon afterward.When left untreated, the condition can lead to total blindness in some cases.“We suspected that the cataracts were there already when Mamadou was born, but slowly they got worse,” Dr.Paul Rudalevicius, an eye surgeon who volunteers with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone, told Fox News Digital.Inherited cataracts and malnutrition are common causes of the condition, the doctor said.Mamadou, who is from Waterloo, Sierra Leone, “wasn’t able to see much of anything,” according to Ella Hawthorne, an optometrist who also works with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone.“He could tell there was a light that was being turned on, but he couldn’t even really tell that a hand was being waved in front of his face,” she told Fox News Digital.“He really couldn’t see the world around him very much.”“His friends always provoked him, and also laughed at him because of his condition,” she told Fox News Digital.

“He was going to school, but could not see or write clearly.”The boy was also having trouble walking and picking up objects, and was very sensitive to sunlight.Salematu tried several times over the years to get her son the surgery he needed, but local hospitals would not do it.Over time, his vision worsened.Then Mercy Ships docked its hospital ship, the Global Mercy, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to provide safe surgeries to residents for free — and Mamadou was selected.Hawthorne recalled her first encounter with the boy.

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