Kosovars line up for eye exam, glasses
at Task Force Medical Falcon clinic
By Rick Emert, Kosovo
bureau
Rick Emert / Stars and Stripes
Shqipe Zymberi, 7, gets her eyeglasses fitted Friday by Sgt. Kenneth McClendon, an optical
lab specialist with Task Force Medical Falcon's Optometry Clinic. Zymberi's vision was
corrected from 20/250 to 20/25. |
MUCIBABA, Kosovo — Eight-year-old Fitore Zymberi and her
7-year-old sister, Shqipe, got a much clearer outlook on life recently.
The two girls, extremely near-sighted with 20/400 and 20/250 vision
respectively, left a school in their ethnic Albanian town of Mucibaba wide-eyed and
smiling with near perfect 20/25 vision, thanks to eyeglasses provided by Task Force
Medical Falcon’s Optometry Clinic.
“This is the reason we’re here,” said Capt. Gregory
Hutcheson, an optometrist with the Optical Civilian Assistance Program. “Without
glasses, [Shqipe] can’t see; if she can’t see, she can’t learn. It affects
the rest of her life.”
Mucibaba residents lined up in the tiny school’s hallway outside
of the makeshift examination room, which took only 10 minutes to set up in a heated
classroom. As Hutcheson began the examinations, more townspeople were making the trek to
the school, situated at the top of a steep hill near Checkpoint Terminator. Townspeople
learn of the visits from a local radio show that has medical guests from Task Force
Medical Falcon and by word of mouth, Hutcheson said.
In Mucibaba, some people required only reading glasses. Others like
the Zymberi sisters and their 10-year-old brother Flamur, needed prescription eyeglasses
to correct near- or farsightedness.
“I can see now,” Flamur said, through a translator.
“I’m very happy.” Adding in English, with a thumbs-up, that his tinted
eyeglasses were “very cool.”
Another patient, Halide Imeri, 58, was found to be farsighted. When
the translator explained that she would get a pair of reading glasses, she said she
didn’t care about reading.
“I want to be able to see my husband better,” Imeri said,
through a translator. Imeri left the school with a pair of eyeglasses that would fulfill
her wish.
With 8,000 pairs of eyeglasses donated mostly from Lions’ Clubs
across the United States and the University of Indiana, the optometry staff has a pretty
good chance of having something for everyone.
“We see about 70 to 80 people each week,” Hutcheson said.
“Generally, we can help about 95 percent of the people we see.”
The three-person optometry team takes its clinic on the road to a
different city every Friday.
Sometimes, there are simply too many people in line for the
optometrists to examine everyone.
“It’s hard to have to turn people away,” Hutcheson
said. “If we know we’re about to run out of time, I’ll go down the line and
try to pull all the children in. These kids have their whole lives ahead of them; if they
can’t see, that’s not much of a future.”
Others have problems that can’t be treated at the field site,
such as an elderly man Friday who had cataracts and required surgery. Through a
translator, Hutcheson told the man there was nothing he could do for him and apologized,
but most people left the school smiling and seeing more clearly.
With a little more than a month left in Kosovo and after more than 20
such visits, Sgt. Kenneth McClendon, an optical lab specialist, said he still enjoys the
reactions from the people they’ve helped.
“We helped a guy once who was about 75 or 80 and couldn’t
see more than five feet in front of him,” McClendon said. “He never had glasses.
We gave him a pair, and he was shaking because all of a sudden he could see. He was so
happy he was just glowing.”
As much as the staff enjoys the civilian assistance visits, they are
difficult to set up. The staff coordinates with other units at Camp Bondsteel to borrow
Humvees. They must also arrange for security vehicles and translators to accompany them to
the sites. In Mucibaba, they had to arrange for a security patrol from Checkpoint
Terminator to provide site security. Once they arrive at the sites, however, the field
clinic is set up in minutes and the examinations run like clockwork.
“I like being able to help people like this,” Hutcheson
said. “So far, this is the accomplishment I’m most proud of in my [Army]
career.”
“I think this is why we came here,” McClendon added.
“I’m away from my son and wife right now, but helping people like this gives it
meaning. If I could come out here everyday, I would.”
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