When a cataract clouds the eye, surgeons in America typically remove it so the patient can continue reading, driving and doing other normal activities.

That, according to Vietnamese eye doctor Cam Duong, is why a clinic proposed by San Luis Obispo County eye surgeon Sonny Higginbotham is so needed.

"If they are poor and blindness is a potential fate, we should do something in our capacity," Duong wrote in an e-mail to The Tribune. "Blindness will result in more poverty, illiteracy, and the burden for the patient’s relative and for the society."

Higginbotham went to Vietnam in June for the first time since serving in the war. While he visited some of the places he remembered from the war, his goal was to scout locations and opportunities to open a free eye clinic.

"Here (in America), we take a cataract out because it’s bothering the patient, either for driving or reading or whatever," Higginbotham said. "Over there, the rich people do the same as they do here. But over there, the vast majority have to wait until the cataracts are fairly severe."

The Can Tho region is the center of the Mekong Delta. The region is considered the "rice basket" of Vietnam, and Higginbotham said some of the poorer farmers in the region cannot work if they go blind - leading to Duong’s reasoning that a free eye clinic will help alleviate problems on society.

Such an eye clinic would be the only choice for people in more than 10 provinces, Duong said. Currently, eye care for the poor in the region is based mostly on the donations of individuals and organizations.

Higginbotham is now working to set up a nonprofit organization so he can apply for grants that would help pay for the clinic. Donations and grants, he said, are what would help get the clinic operational.

Higginbotham said that during his trip he was looking specifically for eye disorders in the children. He saw children with crossed eyes, congenital glaucoma and enlarged eyes.

"There’s a lot more red tape than I expected because I’m dealing with the communist government," he said. "In medicine we never say anything’s 100 percent, but I feel 99 percent certain we’ll get this done."

Duong said it could take at least a year to open such a clinic, depending on factors such as money, paperwork, staff preparation, equipment, logistics for the initial operation and finding a site.

All four of Higginbotham’s partners at Pacific Eye Surgery agreed to volunteer at least one week a year in Vietnam. One of his partners specializes in pediatric ophthalmology, and could help treat children at the orphanage.

"I think we have to share something for the poor patients," Duong wrote. "What is the value of keeping everything for us and then one day we will be dust in the grave?"

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