FEATURE
ENACTING CHANGE Through Public Service
Sidharth Puri, MD
P
arents and children begin to line
up early. There is a sense of joy,
excitement, children laughing. A
few kids try to start early, but eager
staff encourage them to wait un-
til everyone is ready. The clock strikes 11:00
a.m. and the lines of families move en masse
as they bring their children for their annual
health screenings.
Hundreds of families were present at “Open Arms Children’s
Health” at Home of the Innocents on August 3, 2018. This was the
second annual Back to School Bash/health screening at the inte-
grated pediatric health center. Each child who visited each health
screening station was given a backpack filled with school supplies.
Several UofL departments were present, including Ophthalmology,
Dentistry and Audiology. Our eye doctors have participated the past
two years. Our residents and faculty have been eager to volunteer
their time and energy to help perform vision screenings for refugee
and underprivileged children in the community.
These children need our care. Vision is such a critical function
for school performance and everyday life. These children may not
only be new to this country, but may also be so young that they
cannot convey their vision concerns appropriately. Early interven-
tion is necessary at times to treat and possibly reverse disorders like
strabismus (crossed eyes).
As the morning passed, our residents teamed up to check vision
as families lined up. This gave our residents a chance to perform eye
exams under limited resources and yet still be able to determine if
someone needed a more thorough exam. This not only helps the
community, but also strengthens physicians’ exam skills and tests
their ability to work under improvised circumstances. The chil-
dren afterward were screened by our attending faculty. By having
our faculty present, we can discern nuances in eye motility and
external exam findings that would require referral for a thorough
clinic follow-up.
Within two hours, we screened over 300 community children at
Open Arms. Of those 300, we found 78 children who needed clinic
follow-up. The majority of findings included strabismus, ptosis and
decreased vision. These patients all had the potential to have had
their ocular findings missed until it was too late and amblyopia
(lazy eye) had set in. Early intervention, either medical or surgical,
is key in these cases.
The vision screening highlights for our residents and faculty the
importance of giving back to those in need. We are all physicians
first and foremost. We may be from different backgrounds and at
varying levels of training, but we all got to where we are today by
helping others. Volunteering in medical school or college, devoting
our time and seeing those benefits, that is why we became doctors.
It is easy to take care of the patient who is compliant and comes
to all of their doctor visits. It is not easy to take care of a patient who
may not speak English, who may not be from this country, and who
may not know how to seek help. These patients are why we have
trained so hard to become physicians. We must remember that.
I encourage those reading this article to consider volunteering
at a local medical screening. Our community in Louisville is a
treasure trove of unique individuals from all over the world. We
each have the opportunity and skills to make a change in someone’s
life. I look forward to seeing how you will get involved and make
a difference.
Dr. Puri is the Chief Resident of the University of Louisville Department
of Ophthalmology.
NOVEMBER 2018
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