Syracuse area doctors lead medical team to South Sudan - Syracuse.com

A 15-person medical team headed by two doctors from central New York leave for South Sudan Saturday for two weeks of work at the Duk Lost Boys Clinic.

The Lost Boys health clinic, which opened five years ago, is supported by the John Dau Foundation.

Dau is a Syracuse resident who settled here in 2001, after fleeing a civil war in his homeland and living in a refugee camp for 10 years.

Doctors traveling pay their own way, said David Reed, one of the clinic’s two medical directors.

This trip will help Reed and Barbara Connor, the other medical director, train and assess needs for further training of African health care providers in South Sudan.

Reed is associate director of the emergency department at the Syracuse Veterans Administration medical center. Connor is an emergency medical doctor at Oswego Hospital. They are heading to a nation still very much in turbulence.

A dozen eye specialists from the Moran Eye Center in Salt Lake City, Utah are part of the team traveling with the Syracuse doctors. They’ll be performing surgeries and seeking local candidates to train to provide eye care at the clinic on a regular basis.

With a dearth of health care and poor nutrition, South Sudan has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, said Reed.

South Sudan, in east-central Africa, gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Since then three rival tribes have been in conflict over water and land.

The medical team plans to fly to the clinic eye surgery candidates from three different and rival tribal areas. The Moran eye specialists will perform basic cataract and other eye surgeries, restoring sight to at least 50 people, Reed said.

By providing equal care to members of rival tribes, the doctors hope to demonstrate that “the dividends of peace come not just to one tribe,” said Reed.

The effects of eye surgery are dramatic, Reed said.

“For each person to whom sight is restored, relief is brought to two people," he said. "The person who was blind, and usually, a young child who had been assigned to lead the blind person around 24 hours a day.”