As the the VOSH Southeast clinics coordinator, I am pleased to offer our report.

Our basic team from Florida was composed of 4 persons, myself, Greg Kane OD (St Augustine), Jerry Potts (retired optician) our dispensing leader, his wife Robin Potts MD, (family practice Jacksonville), and our youth leader, Sandy Denardis from Ocala. We w

ere joined by Dr. Alejandra Narvaez and her 4 optometry students from Unicit, and ProVision clinic in Managua, which is supported by VOSH International.

The students were most helpful in that they all took turns on auto refraction, refractions, and dispensing of eyeglasses. We enjoyed working with them to improve their eyecare skills and knowledge. Their names are Walter, Gema, Tania and Grace.

All were hard working kids and performed well as we encountered 767 patients and dispensed around 800 pairs of eyeglasses, including bifocals, minus spheres and reading glasses, all provided by VOSH International, VOSH Southeast, and myself.

I received a large quantity of various types of eye drops from ALCON medical mission, which were used by the surgery group, and in our clinics. The artificial tears were like gold to everyone in this dry / dusty country. Future missions like this will be done with a per patient fee of $3-4 to help cover the cost of goods used, and to weed out those persons that really don't need to be there.

Also a big part of our group Abi Yildirim and Dick Echols are bio-engineers from Birmingham that came to FIX anything and everything they could (those 2 know how to party).   Also aiding our mission were various locals such as Sergio Romero, our translator and transporter from Estelli. Juan Rodrigues Lacayo from Granada, our good friend and Translator / Transporter without whom we could not function at full tilt! 

Next, we had 2 nurses each day that ran visual acuities and did blood pressures on those over 40, one of which was Vladimir Barrios' mom...Vladimir is also a local, a former clinic manager from Guatemala's VOSH clinic. Vladi also helped us as translator and clinic structure organizer. He was a BIG help to us! Finally we had an expat American now living in Granada and his beautiful wife ( Keith and Nancy Knight )

Nancy was our Jeffa Del Puerta, that means she ran our clinic entry doors, along with several local American Legionnaires members who helped us carry our vast quantities of glasses and equipment around Granada. The lady that ran the 2nd floor library in the Japanese hospital was a dear person, and did much to help us every day! Her name was Flo.

Our team (BRIGADA), referred 5 cases of extreme hypertension to the Clinica Alabama, removed 2 foreign bodies, and discovered (sadly) a brain tumor in a 2 year old female, which i promptly referred downstairs to ophthalmology, and then Dr Rudy ran with that one. I never heard of the outcome.

The VOSH mission statement is to provide sustainable eye-care to countries like Nicaragua, and we seek 20/20 for all by the year 2020! As a side note, Dr Robin Potts was shanghaied from our group and tapped by Rudy to run a diabetes study at the main clinic, we missed you Robin! I want to thank everyone that helped in our endeavors and hope that Granada is a better place now that everyone can see better!




Dr Greg Kane OD presenting Dr Rudy
a check donation from VOSH Southeast










Respectfully submitted by:
Dr Greg Kane  
2/20/2011