Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
Cuban Ambassador Gisela García Rivera (left) with Lenissa Woolcock, one of the latest eye patients to return from Cuba after successful surgery. Lenissa and other patients arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport on Saturday. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WHATEVER CONCERNS there may be about the Cuban eye care programme, the latest batch of patients do not share them.
Ninety more patients returned to the island on Saturday afternoon after successful surgeries on their affected eyes. Among them was Lenissa Woolcock, a 15-year-old from Westmoreland who had a huge tumour which forced her eye down towards her left cheekbone. Like most of the other patients, she wears a patch over her eye to limit the risk of infection.
"Before I was ugly but now I'm
pretty," she joked with Cuban Ambassador Gisela García who went to the Norman Manley International Airport to meet the patients. Cases like Lenissa's reinforce the ambassador's faith in the programme.
PUBLIC SERVICE
"The doctors in Cuba don't work in private clinics, they give public service. That's our commitment," she said. She stressed, however, that the patients must seek post-operative check-ups through doctors in Jamaica or back in Cuba.
"Those who have problems, we want them to let us know because we will provide these services until the very end," she pledged. While most of the patients were only in Cuba for a few weeks, Lenissa was there for four months because of the severity of her problem.
"I was feeling nervous at first and I used to wear a cap all the time. But now I no longer feel pain," the perky teenager said. Her mother Yvonne Campbell was a relieved woman.
"I feel great. I was worried when she was going to do the last surgery because I feared it might not work out," she admitted. But they weren't the only ones giving thanks. Elsaida Subaxon who had a mole and flesh growing behind her right eye did her surgery on May 30.
"Everything was perfect. I have no complaints. The people there were full of love, I missed nothing in Cuba," she said. Like many of the patients we spoke to, she thanked the Cuban Embassy, the Ministry of Health and the Government for providing them with the opportunity to fix their eyes.
Some patients will have to return to Cuba within a few months for follow-up procedures.
