Flying hospital takes eye care to new heights around the world

FREETOWN – A one-of-a-kind hospital is taking eye care to new heights.

The Flying Eye Hospital is changing the lives of its patients and providing teaching opportunities around the world.

Armed with knowledge and an absolutely fabulous plane, Orbis nurse Lori Pacheco, of Freetown, is here to save eyesight.

“Ninety percent of vision loss is avoidable globally,” Pacheco said. “So our mission is to treat avoidable blindness and we do that through teaching.”  

This is revolutionary. A flying hospital that’s able to change the lives of people around the world.

“We are treating those in low to middle income countries that don’t necessarily have the resources or the training to provide quality care to their patients,” Pacheco said.

The Flying Eye Hospital is set up to handle everything.

You’ve got the front, you’ve got the laser room. You’ve got a communications center, you have the whole operating room.  You have the sterilization room where we decontaminate and sterilize our instruments, and you have a pre-op and recovery room,” Pacheco said.

The plane also serves as a classroom. Future nurses from other countries can come in and learn as they watch operations and examinations happen. This is knowledge sharing.

“Those nurses are going to take that knowledge that we gave them and they are going to bring it back to their hospitals and they could very well make a large impact on their patient care just by that training,” Pacheco said.

The hospital is on the move and headed to more places in need of help and training.

“For hospital-based training programs, this year we have four more in Zambia. We will be in India and China. We will be in Mongolia and Bangladesh,” Pacheco said.