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Southwest Michigan Eye Center
3600 Capital Avenue S.W., Suite 203
Battle Creek, Michigan 49015
Ph / 800-274-6699
Fx / 269-979-6381
Southwest Michigan Eye Center goes to Zimba, Zambia on a mission trip
You can bring help and hope for a lifetime of vision through the Mission Eyes Foundation. Below is a video of a recent trip that captures a typical week at the Zimba Clinic. Some Southwest Michigan Eye Center as well as members of the First Wesleyan Church in Battle Creek have scheduled their next trip for November 2012.
August 2010 Mission Trip volunteers
View this video of a woman dancing, celebrating her sight being restored at the Zimba Clinic.
Mercy Receives Sight Restoring Surgery
Mercy Muzumara, after her recent surgery in Massachusetts, is seen with Dr. Jeff Colquhoun, who frequently leads medical missions to Zambia, and Charity Moobe. Mercy and Charity are both from Zambia.Mercy Muzumara, age 30, was seen at the Zimba Clinic in Zambia in 2008, while Dr. P. Jeffrey Colquhoun was there on a mission trip. She suffered from Stevens Johnson syndrome from a reaction to an antibiotic and in spite of several surgical operations with amniotic corneal grafts in 2008/09; by August 2010 she was legally blind. Mercy, a mother of 3 young children was recently widowed after her husband Isaac, a Zambian minister, died from cancer.
Mercy was a candidate only for Keratoprosthesis, where a mini-telescope is placed through the cornea, lens and into the vitreous cavity. This procedure was developed in Boston, MA by Dr. Klaus Dahlman and Dr. James Chodish. There are few medical centers in the world where the procedure is performed. She was sent to Massachusetts’s Eye and Ear infirmary for surgery July 27 at the Harvard Medical Center, where the 6 hour procedure went very well. One day post-op Mercy had 20/60 vision and will be monitored with post op visits for surgical follow up. Mercy visited Battle Creek August 12 prior to her return to Zambia August 20.
Several organizations have assisted her on this medical journey; they include International Vision Volunteers (501 C) of CA, First Wesleyan Church of Battle Creek, Mission Eyes Foundation of the Battle Creek Community Foundation and Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary- Harvard Medical Center.
View the August 17 Battle Creek Enquirer photo gallery when Mercy visited Battle Creek in August 2011.