Day 8: the departure home

This week has been an amazing experience for both of us. It is so hard to believe that it is coming to an end. As we went to bed last night, we both discussed the inconvenience of the airline's decision to cancel our flight at 8 pm out of Patna. The new flight has us leaving at 1:30 pm from Patna arriving at 3:00 pm for an 11 hour layover in New Delhi until 2:00 am for Germany. This means that we lose a half day of work at the AB Eye Institute. We both decided that it would be worth it to purchase tickets with another airline for a later flight so that we can both work at the hospital and reduce our layover time in Delhi. As soon as we woke up, we tried to purchase tickets online with Brayden's computer. Unfortunately the internet was down. We went for morning tea with the Sinha's and discussed our decision. They were thrilled to hear of our decision to stay longer. They saw it as a complement to them that we really enjoyed our time with them . . . and we do! Dr. Ajit Sinha arranged for a driver to take us early to the hospital to use the wireless internet there to purchase our tickets. As soon as we arrived, we fired up the internet with NO LUCK! The internet was down at the hospital too. We began to think that we weren't supposed to stay longer. Luckily, one of the staff at the hospital knew of an internet cafe close by and we ran to check our luck! YES! The internet was working great. We logged on to flykingfisher.com and found a flight out of Patna later today at 6:30 pm. We purchased our tickets with much relief and headed back home to the Sinha's for breakfast. We were treated to a wonderful breakfast once again and then took some time to pack and prepare for our flight later that day.

Dr. Ajit Sinha later called for us as it was time to head to the hospital to begin our day. Once we arrive, we were greeted by a large room full of patients in the waiting area. We quickly went into the patient screening room to get to work. We worked that morning from about 10:00 until 4:00 pm. Laura continued her work at the auto-refractor, and Brayden checked visual acuity, checked histories, and collected data for his research project with the help of Abhishek, the head optometrist. The time went so fast! Dr. Ajit Sinha called us into his office several times throughout the morning to show us different cases. One particular case was of a patient who survived a motorcycle collision. A visual field test result showed that the patient had lost vision on the sides, called bitemporal hemianopia. Some pictures from Wikipedia show:

Visual field loss

Normal vision

This test indicated that the patient had damage to his optic nerves at the optic chiasm. Dr. Ajit Sinha then informed us that he would need to receive specific help from a specialist to see if anything could be done to treat his condition.

After working in the hospital for the week, we came to love the patients! Some patients we saw several times during the week for follow-up appointments after cataract surgeries and after specific treatments for infections and treatments. It was amazing to see healing in action. One patient arrived earlier in the week with lot's of swelling on her left eyelid. Enough that she was unable to open her eye. There was slight pain and watering. The doctors treated her and she came back two additional times. By the last visit, her eyelid was back to normal!

Later that day, Dr. Satyajit Sinha arrived at the hospital from his business trip. We were just about to leave the clinic to get ready for our flight when Drs. Sinha presented us both with certificates and letters of recommendation for having worked in the hospital and charity clinics. They had been keeping track of how many patients we had seen during the week and to our surprise, we had helped almost 600! To give you an idea of how many patients that is, the doctor that Brayden works for averages around 300-400 patients A MONTH! It is truly amazing what kind of work the Sinha's do for the people in Bihar!

When we arrived home, we were treated with lunch. Grandma Sinha remembered that Brayden LOVED the river fish from earlier in the week and had it specially prepared again as a departure gift! We were so surprised! Our last wonderful meal with the Sinha's! After lunch, we made sure that all was in order. This picture shows all of the glasses that we brought with us! We organized them by power.

As we grabbed our luggage to head for the car, we found Laura's spider friend. he had been seen here and there in our room. Our first day he had startled her by jumping out when she went to put something on a table in our room. As anyone who knows Laura knows, she is a total wimp when it comes to spiders. The spider then ran up the wall and hung out there for a few days. As long as Laura knew where he was, she was just fine with him! Ha ha!But then he disappeared a few days before we left, much to Laura's displeasure, but it was good to finally figure out where he had ended up!

We were very sad to say goodbye to the Sinha family! They have given us the opportunity of a lifetime. We learned so much from each and every one of them. No doubt they will be lifetime friends! We made sure that they knew that they would always have a place to stay if they ever make a trip out to Utah! The picture below from L to R, the director of the charity eye clinic next to the AB Eye Institute in Patna City, Dr. Satyajit Sinha, Dr. Ajit Sinha, Brayden, Laura, Dr. Grandma Sinha.

We snapped some photos of the city as we made our way back to the airport. We sure miss India!

After a 33 hour flight back home, we made it! As soon as we arrived back home, we jumped in the shower and hit the sac! Brayden had school the following morning and worked on some homework before heading to school. It was such a contrast living in India where the sun blazed at 41 C of 105 F and to be welcomed home to 32 F and SNOW! Fortunately, jet lag has not been too much of a problem.

Brayden and Laura have been very fortunate to be able to work with Unite for Sight and the Sinha family in India. We are still interested in global health and will continue to work with Unite for Sight here in America.