Angel’s SEE International Operation Goes Well

When Angel Lucena was born, his parents had no idea that he had a problem with his vision. Soon afterwards, they realized something must be wrong.

“At first, we thought that he had a problem with his hearing, because he would look in the wrong direction when we called him,” explained his mother, who soon realized there was, in fact, a problem with his vision. When he dropped a toy, he had problems finding it.

They took him to a local doctor who misdiagnosed him. Eventually they brought him to a local ophthalmologist who diagnosed him with bilateral cataracts, but the cost to treat him was prohibitive.

Cecilia, Angel’s mother, found out about a social program that was working with Dr. James Conahan, a ‘SEE Doc’ from Denver, Colorado. Conahan volunteered to come to Ixtapa to operate on Angel. He has been doing volunteer ophthalmology work in Mexico since 1997. With support of SEE International, he and his wife Molly, who acted as his surgical assistant, packed the equipment that they would need and flew to Mexico.

The operation went really well. Angel’s cataracts were removed and new lenses were put in. Before he was just seeing shadows, but now he will see definition. Conahan is confident that with the aid of glasses, Angel’s vision will be close to normal.