Monrovia – Dr. Lawrence Konmla Bropleh, a victim of an untrained ophthalmologist, is calling on the Liberian government to carry on an intensive training of health practitioners to become excellent in ophthalmic.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh [email protected]
Dr. Bropleh, who served as Information Minister under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, made the remark when he served as keynote speaker during the official program commemorating the World Sight Day at the Liberian Christian Fellowship on October 11, 2018.
There is a global vision for the ‘right to sight’, which is dedicated to eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020.
Dr. Bropleh said 80 percent of all blindness can be prevented or treated; if and only if the ‘right to sight’ can be fulfilled two years from now.
Recounting his devastation in the early 70s in Buchannan, Grand Bassa County, Dr. Bropleh narrated how healthcare providers, who are not trained in ophthalmic or eye care services, must not pretend in arrogance that they possessed such expertise.
The effect of such pretense, he says, can lead to the irreversible mistakes of “tsunami proportions”.
Dr. Bropleh recalls his ordeal: “I am a victim of such tyranny of arrogant pretense as a result of unskilled health practitioners in early 1970 in Buchannan, Grand Bassa County at the Liberian Government Hospital.”
Even though he refuses to allow the aftereffect of his situation define his destiny, he still lives with the reality of losing sight in his left eye.
“Today, as a victim now turned survival of malpractice that left me blind in my left eye, I make a passionate plea to the Liberian Government and its partners through the Ministry of Health to provide adequate funding and related support to the National Eye Health Program, the New Sight Center and other Eye Centers,” he said.
According to Dr. Bropleh, the lack of eye clinic, ophthalmic nurses or ophthalmologist will hinder to vision 2020 goal.
He added: “I am of the opinion that eye disorders and other sight impediments must be treated as a national emergency.”
According to World Health Organizations’ statistics, every five seconds one person in the world goes blind. Also, one child goes blind every minute, and it is estimated that over seven million become blind every year.
Adding up Dr. Broleh’s request, the president of the Christian Association of the Blind Beyan Kota stressed that because of the lack of quality health service in the country children are needlessly becoming blind.
He also called on the government to make the necessary budgetary allocation to prevent avoidable blindness by 2020.
“The people in the rural areas cannot easily access healthcare and that is a major concern,” the president of the Christian Association of the Blind said.
“Therefore, we call on the authority of the Ministry of Health to do something about developing a mobile service unit in the rural parts of Liberia and make the right publicity for people in the rural places to access quality eye health services.”