Indra is a two year old boy from Harona Kalla, a cluster of villages located in the remote part of West Sumba. He is the sixth child of the family. In late May 2021, Indra was brought by his mother to the Lamboya clinic to seek help for his right eye which was accidentally stabbed with a knife the day prior. Indra had been left in the care of his older sister whilst his parents were out in the field. He had been playing with a knife away from his sister’s attention when he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye. We urgently had to help Indra!

On examination by our eye care nurse, it was evident that the white part of his eye was ruptured and some of the contents of the eyeball had leaked out. He needed immediate surgery to close up the wound and prevent serious infection of the eyeball. Unfortunately, Sumba island’s sole ophthalmologist is in Waingapu in East Sumba, a four hour drive from Lamboya. Having a single ophthalmologist on the island also means that service is frequently unavailable, when the doctor is away. To top it all, Indra’s family would have to pay out of pocket for surgery, which was far from what they could afford.

Without immediate care, the infection in his eye would cause him extreme pain and eventually complete blindness on one eye. The team of doctors and eye care nurses from the Sumba Foundation provided diagnosis and arranged the surgery via teleconsultation with our network of ophthalmologists in Australia. As a result, Indra received prompt eye surgery, where he had his eyeball sutured and had intravenous antibiotics administered.

After our team’s care, Indra’s eye has shown excellent improvement, which would not have been possible without surgery and full medical care. The acute inflammation post-surgery had subsided and there is no sign of infection.