On 11th of June 2020, Wuga, the widely concerned girl, arrived inBeijing at 4pm, and went to Beijing Aier Intech Eye Hospital for receiving a corneal transplantation surgery in her left eye.
Once Wuga arrived at the hospital, Dr.Li Shaowei, the nationally well-known expert in corneal transplantation, arranged a series of related examination to prepare for tomorrow’s surgery. And the donated corneal would also be delivered at the same day from the Aier Eye Bank from Hunan to Beijing.
Wuga is a nine-year-old left-behind girl from Yunnan province. Diagnosed as corneal leucoma in 3 months after she was born, Wuga didn’t get any proper treatment due to the poverty of her family and lack of knowledge about this disease. Wuga’ s parents got divorce when she was little; her mother then left them. Her father reconstituted a new family, but he had to work away from home, therefore, for the most time, it was grandfather who accompanied Wuga. Wuga was rarely willing to go out other than going to school because of the insecurity caused by loss of vision. At school, she could only pronounce along with teachers and classmates, not being able to know any letter.
The reporters of CCTV met Wuga in the mountains. After contacts, Dr.Li Shaowei’s team from Beijing Aier-Intech Eye Hospital, China Youth Foundation and Hunan Eyelove Charity foundation stepped up to help.
On 9th of January, 2019, Dr. Li Shaowei, professional in corneal disease and cataract, developed a surgical plan for Wuga.
The surgery was planned in two phases: the cornea leucoma of her right eye was relatively small, referring that her pupil wasn’t completely covered, but deformed by adhesion. To avoid the potential rejection to corneal transplantation, Dr. Li decided to only operate coreoplasty for Wuga, and postpone the planned corneal transplantation of her left eye until her right eye recovered to a certain extent.
When designing the surgical plan, considering the long-tern effect, Dr. Li Shaowei operated the first phase of Wuga’s treatment – iridectomy and coreoplasty in the right eye.
To improve Wuga’s vision quality better, Dr. Li and his team went through several twists and turns, and finally found a proper donor’s cornea. As the second phase of Wuga’s treatment, the corneal transplantation surgery was planned to operate on 12th of June, 2020.
Wuga is the 54th beneficiary of the welfare project “You Are My Eyes- Corneal blindness welfare assistance”. Hunan Eyelove Charity Foundation, the organizer of this project, has bear the full cost of Wuga’s treatment, and Dr. Li offered to the transportation and daily cost of Wuga and her family in Beijing.
Since launched from March of 2016 to 31st of December in 2019, this welfare project, “You Are My Eyes- Corneal Blindness Welfare Assistance”, has helped 500+ people suffering from poverty, disability and corneal blindness as Wuga.