Travelling to NOOR
Travelling from Badakshan to Kabul is a long arduous journey, up over the Hindu Kush Mountains along, the Salang Pass, where at the height of the road you reach almost 3, 400 meters above sea level. It is a journey of roughly 500 kilometres, but it takes over twelve hours to complete. Badakshan is one of the most remote and poorest provinces in Afghanistan, yet people from there come to Kabul to find answers to their health problems. And, they come to NOOR, because they have heard at NOOR, their eye problems can be fixed.
An accident with lasting effects
One such lady came recently. Two years ago, she had slipped and fallen into a tandoor, (an outdoor mud oven) that Afghans use for cooking their staple bread, nan. Often yards in Afghan homes consist of hard packed dirt, and when the rains come inevitably it becomes very slippery. Still, the naan must be cooked.
When she fell into the tandoor, her face was severely burned. As the burn healed scarring resulted, which caused her eyelid to turn inwards, and to force her eye in a position where it was always open. She could not blink to moisten her eye, or even close it for sleeping. Her eye was constantly dry, and she was in constant pain. She was told she would go blind, as a result of this news she became very depressed.
At this point, her family brought her all the way from Badakshan to NOOR hospital in Kabul. One of the doctors at NOOR is a specialist in plastic surgery. A plan of treatment was devised. They would take a skin graft from the back of her neck and reconstruct a new eyelid for her. The woman had the surgery, and she spent the next two months at NOOR recuperating before returning to Badakshan.
The Results
Because of her surgery, she could now blink her eye, and close it for sleeping, which allowed her to keep it moist. Slowly her eye healed and she regained her sight. She could go out by herself, contribute to taking care of her children and household at full capacity. Her depression lifted, and she returned to Badakshan ready to engage fully in life again.
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