The Dooley team meets with eye surgeons in Vientiene Laos, planning outreach cataract clinics for remote villages.

The roots of Dooley-Intermed are set deep in the happenings of Laos for over half a century, beginning with the late Dr. Tom Dooley in 1957 when he was working at his clinic in Muong Sing in North Laos.

Blindness Prevention “Gift of Sight” Project

Dooley-Intermed is funding a Gift of Sight remote outreach program in cooperation with surgeons at the Vientaine, Laos, Ophthalmology Centre.  Our program is focused on providing free surgical care to “the poorest of the poor” individuals in remote villages with debilitating eye disease, especially cataracts.  This project will take place in a regional healthcare facility near Luang Prabang, with current plans for over 200 sight-restoring surgeries for those blinded by cataracts.

Dooley-Intermed donated three Keratome knives for use in eye surgery in Laos, as well as books, teaching and professional education materials for the Vientaine Ophthalmology Centre.

Dr. Robert Ritch, a Dooley-Intermed Board member and a frequent consultant to Dr. Vithoune, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Vientiane Eye Institute, was instrumental in establishing our relationship at the Eye Center and its excellent staff. Dooley-Intermed has supplied equipment, training and teaching aids and ophthalmology textbooks and journals. Supplies have been delivered courtesy of the Lao U.N. Ambassador by diplomatic pouch in support of Dr. Vithoune’s Blindness Prevention and Treatment Programs.

Your gift can work miracles by providing the Gift of Sight

to someone in need.

$25 provides a single eye cataract surgery and intra-ocular lens implant

$100 provides prescription eyeglasses for a ten patients in need

$1000 provides a full-day outreach clinic for remote villagers, including eyeglasses and surgeries.

Aid to Land Mine Victims

The worldwide land mine issue is frightening and overwhelming to all of us. Land mines are another one of those horrible weapons of mass destruction that we hear so much about. Following his return from Laos in March 1998, Dr. Chaney was compelled to write a personal statement about his trip to Laos and the effect it had on him.

“THE STORY OF VICTIMS OF A WAR THAT NEVER ENDED”

Dooley-Intermed has provided past assistance to the National Medical Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane where prosthetics, orthotics, crutches, and wheel chairs are made and vocational training is carried out for the deaf, blind and speechless. Equipment needs have included:

Audiometers and hearing aids

Physical therapy equipment

Electronic muscle testing capability

Eyeglasses

Eye examination and vision testing equipment

Technical assistance for improved production of orthopedic devices

Dental Clinics

A second location is in the south of Laos centered at the 200 bed Pakse Provincial Hospital where Dooley-Intermed had an extensive program in the 60′s and 70′s. The hospital is now the principal Medical Care and Trauma Center for all of the 5 southern provinces where there continues to be a heavy clinical load of land mine victims.