Staff Writer
Since 2004, Ny Tim has lived in a world of shadows.
Six months ago, the 45-year-old man left the small Cambodian village where he spent a lifetime raising his family and working the nearby rice fields. It was the first time he had ever left his five children or traveled beyond the village border.
And he couldn’t see a thing.
“He can count fingers from three feet away with his right eye, but in his left he can only pick up shadows,” said Optometrist Dr. David Heward. “He has maybe 5 percent of his vision.”
Heward, of Harbor View Eye Care in South Portland, said Tim’s eyes are affected by Pterygium, a benign growth of the conjunctiva that appears as a cloudy film over the eye. Tim’s condition is a symptom of overexposure to harmful ultraviolet rays, he said.
“It’s like the brain is trying to protect your eyes,” Heward said. “[Pterygium] blocks out the light, but then you can’t see, which doesn’t do anybody any good.”
Heward said Tim’s condition is common among people who spend large amounts of time outside without wearing sunglasses or clothing to shade their eyes, particularly in regions such as Cambodia, where ultraviolet rays from the sun are stronger than most locations in the U.S. Tim said he worked outdoors every day until five years ago, when his sight deteriorated to the point where he was no longer useful in the rice fields.
“If you or I had worked outside in a field as long as [Tim] has, we’d have the same thing,” he said.
One year ago, Paula Chim – a 26-year Portland resident– mentioned that one of her siblings had “some kind of eye problem” during a routine visit to Heward’s office. She wasn’t speaking of Tim, but their sister, who was having trouble seeing clearly.
“I didn’t know what was wrong, just that it had something to do with her eyes,” Chim said.
It was all Heward needed to hear.
He contacted the local Lions Club and asked if they could help pay to bring Chim’s sister from her home in Cambodia to the U.S., where doctors could perform a surgical procedure to remove the overgrown Pterygium, effectively restoring her eyesight.
Heward said the procedure, which costs between $2,000 and $3,000, is fairly straightforward for a qualified surgeon.
“For [surgeons] it’s standard but to us, it’s a miracle,” he said. “I just thought, ‘That isn’t right that people should be blind.’ It’s unnecessary blindness, really.”
The Lions Club agreed to foot the bill, and before long Chim’s sister was on a flight back to Cambodia with near perfect vision, Heward said.
“[Heward] made it happen. We were so grateful,” Chim said. “Words cannot express my gratitude.”
Heward said it was gratifying to help Chim’s sister, and when he heard she had another sibling with the same condition, he was eager to help.
“It would almost make more sense to send a medical team [to Cambodia] to set up some kind of clinic rather than bringing them over here one by one,” he said. “If they can do one of these procedures in a half an hour, imagine how many they could do in a day.”
In September, Heward, Chim and the Lions Club all agreed it was Tim’s turn to come to the U.S. for the same procedure. For the first time in his life, Tim found himself boarding an airplane – one that he could barely see the inside of – with a niece as his guide.
Chim translated her brother’s words during an interview with the Sentry.
“I never thought I would ever sit in an airplane seat,” Tim said. “It was not something I would have dreamed of. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t scared, but I had a lot of questions. I couldn’t ask anyone what was going on because I knew they didn’t speak Cambodian.”
Tim arrived in Portland – a city Chim said would seem massive to him, if only he could see it – and the unthinkable happened.
The Lions Club, like many other charitable organizations, changed its priorities in light of the decline in the economy and could no longer afford to help Tim, Heward said.
“We’re trying to do more local things,” Lions Club President Richard Connolly said. “For something like this the international Lions Club would have to be involved.”
For nearly four months, Heward and his staff sought assistance from other charities, but none was able to help. Tim, who could have fully recovered and returned home in the time since he has arrived, struggled with the possibility that the surgery may not happen at all.
“I am always wishing that I can see. Right now I can’t do anything, not even work in the rice field,” he said. “I was hoping somebody would help me.”
Entertaining the thought of paying for the procedure out of his own pocket, Heward called Vision Service Plan, a national insurance company specializing in eye care, to request a $600 “discretionary fund.”
“They asked what it was for and I said I was going to use it to help pay for [Tim’s] surgery,” Heward said. “They said ‘No, you can’t really use it for that,’ and I thought ‘Oh, great.’ Then they told me that they wanted to pay for the whole thing.”
It took another month for the company and Heward to work out the details; it was time Chim and Tim spent keeping their fingers crossed.
“Maybe there’s a happy ending to all this,” Chim said. “You have to just keep hoping and the end will be there.”
For Tim, the thought of being able to see again was surreal.
“This is the first time in my life someone has taken interest in my eyes,” he said. “[In Cambodia] they just say ‘Beyond fix,’ and offer to take my eyes out. I would rather be blind this way than lose my eyes.”
On Tuesday, at the company’s expense, Dr. Charles Zachs, an ophthalmologist at Portland’s Maine Eye Center, operated on Tim’s right eye. Heward said Tim’s left eye is treatable but recovery would require regularly scheduled follow-up treatments, a luxury unavailable once Tim returns home to Cambodia.
“We might as well do what we can, it’s sort of like having money in the bank,” Heward said.
Tim is expected to fully recover from the procedure in the next few weeks, after which he will return to his family in Cambodia.
For the first time in five years, he will be able to see them as more than mere silhouettes.
“I want to see what’s out there,” Tim said while peering at a nearby window before the operation. “I will see the world clearer.”
When he returns, Tim said he will share his story with other locals who are affected by the same condition, including his son. He said his 14-year-old is already showing signs of Pterygium.
“He’ll be the next one to come over,” Chim said.
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