Eye Hospital

INDO EYE CARE HOSPITAL

ROTARY PALMGROVE EYE HOSPITAL
The Indo Eye Care Foundation got its early inspiration when the principal trustees of the foundation Mr. Naranbhai Patel and Mr. Deep Mirani came into contact with the late Dr. Ram Purohit at the Smt. Lilawatiben Mohanlal Shah (Billimoriawala) Eye Hospital at Navsari, Gujarat, India and were introduced to the Rotary Eye Institute over there. They were highly impressed and inspired by the dedication with which the organization and its team of doctors worked towards treating eye ailments such as Cataract, Glaucoma, Pterygium and sight partially lost due to acid and fire burns.

Motivated by the excellent work done by the Rotary Eye Institute at Navsari, India and seeing that this institute conducted non-residential camps in remote villages of India, Rot. Naranbhai Patel and Rot. Deep Mirani together with the late Dr. Ram Purohit had the brainwave of bringing a team of doctors to Nigeria to conduct free eye surgery camps here. Blessed by the Oba of Lagos and encouraged and supported by the State Governments and other socially responsible persons, the team started performing free eye surgeries in Lagos, Ogun State, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa and Enugu. The "SAVE OUR SIGHT " program got much appreciation and full support from the Hon. Governors and Commissioners of Health of the above states.

The early camps conducted by this team gave then an insight into the depth of the problem and the realization that millions of Nigerians were suffering from eye diseases and preventable blindness. This awareness lead to the creation of the Indo Eye Care Foundation in 2007.

The Indo Eye Care Foundation is a fully charitable organization with the prime objective of providing eye care to the under privileged members of Nigerian society. The Foundation is an accredited institution and recognized by many world bodies such as Rotary. The Indo Eye Care Foundation has become a Ray of Hope for millions of Nigerians in need of eye treatment and has so far held 9 camps and performed about 20,000 free eye surgeries in Nigeria.

Over the years, the Indo Eye care foundation as successfully enabled 7 Cornea transplant surgeries in Nigeria. These surgeries were carried out by the surgeons from The Rotary Eye Institute, India. They were the FIRST OF ITS KIND in West Africa and hailed as an Indian magic where blind Nigerians were able to see with eyes donated by Indians. The Foundation has been sending Nigerian patients to India also for performing Cornea transplants.

Since 2005, The Indo Eye care Foundation along with the assistance of the Indian community in Nigeria have been providing financial as well as all logistical support for conducting the eye camp & surgeries. Since the Charter of the Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate in 2008, the club has collaborated with the Indo Eye care foundation in the conduct of this project as the "Mission for Vision".

The Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate has supported this program in a very active manner in almost all aspects be it providing leadership in the implementation of the program, providing funds, organizing & conducting the Primary & secondary investigation, patient management, providing the logistics support to the team of doctors & paramedics etc.

Seeing the overwhelming demand for Eye related treatment, the trustees of the Foundation realized that bringing a team of doctors annually was not enough to help the underprivileged Nigerians. They, therefore, envisaged the need for opening an exclusive eye hospital here in Lagos that would largely cater to the needy and underprivileged members of Nigerian society. Rot. Naranbhai Patel and Rot. Deep Mirani approached a few like-minded people to help in this noble venture. Major donors of this Foundation include the late Chief H.B.Chanrai, Mr. A.K.Mirchandani, The Lalwani brothers, Mr. Manohar Kabra, The Chandaria Foundation, Kewalram Chanrai Group, Mr. Rohit Daswani and a few others.

The vision of the trustees in of establishing this hospital is to provide appropriate, accessible and high quality eye care with specialized services for vision related ailments such as Cataract, Pterigym, Glaucoma, Cornea rupture etc. to economically backward and underprivileged Nigerians. The Mission is to improving their socio-economic level and enabling them by giving them the gift of sight. It is hoped that the Eye Hospital will be most effective in helping to eradicate blindness in Nigeria with a focus on reversing the tide of curable blindness.

Initially it was decided to establish the hospital at Palmgrove Estate in Lagos. With this in view, an existing building was purchased within Palmgrove Estate. While seeking the necessary approvals for the hospital, the Lagos State Government informed the trustees of their inability to grant permission for a hospital in a residential estate. Undeterred by this setback, the trustees again approached the Lagos State Govt. to provide a suitable site for this hospital.

Thus, the Eye Hospital is being built Ajao estate along Airport Road Lagos. The Foundation stone was laid by non other than Dr. Kalyan Banerjee, President of Rotary International in August 2011. The construction of the main building, consisting of 5 floors has been completed and presently (August 2017) work is in progress to complete the internal works such as Interiors, Electrical and Air-conditioning, floor tiling, computer networking cables, installation of doors / windows etc. This is expected to be completed by October / November 2017. Surgical & diagnostic equipment are being ordered & it is expected that the completely furnished hospital shall be completed by March 2018. Plans are on to approach Rotary Foundation to assist in this very important project to service Humanity.

The Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate has been supporting the foundation to achieve it's dream of providing sight to the underprivileged. It is envisaged that once set up, the Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove with the assistance of the Rotary Foundation & Rotary District 9110 shall also assist the Foundation is providing the necessary surgical & diagnostic equipment, appropriate furniture etc for the hospital.

In the first phase, the hospital will have a State of the Art Operation Theater for conducting eye surgeries alongside an OPD and departments for screening and Optometry & day care facilities. In the first year of operation, it is expected to perform around 3000-5000 surgeries.

In the second phase, it is proposed to have an Eye Hospital, cornea transplant facility & In house patient treatment. With the Indo Eye Care Hospital starting Cornea transplant here, it will come as a boon to many and impact a lot of lives.