Ripple Effect:
Project Access Doctor Improves Boy’s Sight
by Kathleen Kearns
John Rex Endowment
Ever since
Hector Torres was 4 years old, he would turn his head
to look directly at whatever he wanted to see. At 17,
he had very poor peripheral vision and such trouble
seeing at night that he couldn’t drive after dark.
Hector needed cataract surgery, but his mother’s job
didn’t provide enough income to cover it, and Hector
didn’t have medical insurance.
Through Project Access, an Endowment
supported, physician-led effort that provides health
care for low-income and uninsured Wake County
residents, Dr. Jerome J. Magolan of Southern Eye
Associates agreed to see Hector.
When Magolan discovered the boy had
gyrate atrophy, a rare genetic disease, he also
evaluated Hector’s younger brother and sister. The
younger children are fine, but Magolan saw that Hector
needed surgery on both eyes to remove the cataracts
and insert implants. He also referred the boy to a
metabolism clinic to see if the disease could be
slowed through dietary changes. Magolan performed the
first surgery on Hector’s left eye at Duke Raleigh
Hospital during the December holiday. Surgery on
Hector’s right eye is scheduled for his spring break,
and dietary treatment will be ongoing. But Magolan has
let the family know that, even with these steps,
Hector will probably lose his vision in his 30s or
40s.
For now, though, he has clearer sight
and better night vision. He is able to drive and is on
track to graduate from high school this spring. He’s
very happy—and very grateful for the surgery.
By the time he was 17 and a student in
the Wake County public schools, his peripheral vision
was very poor and he had such trouble seeing at night
that he couldn’t drive after dark. A school system
physician realized he had cataracts and recommended
surgery--but his mother’s job at a dry cleaner didn’t
provide enough income to cover the surgery. And Hector
didn’t have medical insurance.
So in October, school administrator
Barbara Danford asked the Endowment for help. Soon
Danford was talking with Pam Carpenter, the director
of Project Access, a physician-led community effort
that has provided health care for low-income and
uninsured Wake County residents since 2000. Private
donations and grants, including a grant from the
Endowment, support the project, which is managed by
the Wake County Medical Society in partnership with
WakeMed, Rex and Duke Raleigh hospitals.
Danford asked Carpenter if there was a
Project Access ophthalmologist who might consider
doing Hector’s surgery without charge.
Carpenter suggested Dr. Jerome J.
Magolan of Southern Eye Associates in Raleigh. Magolan,
who had donated medical services through Project
Access since the program began, readily agreed to see
Hector. When he discovered the boy had a rare genetic
disease called gyrate atrophy, he also offered to
evaluate Hector’s younger brother and sister. He spent
hours with the family, completing a battery of tests
on all three children and explaining what he found.
The younger children were fine, though
Magolan offered to see them again in a year for
follow-up. But he saw that Hector needed surgery on
both eyes to remove the cataracts and insert implants
to improve his vision. He also referred the boy for
dietary evaluation, to see if the metabolic disease
could be slowed through a low-protein diet and vitamin
B-6.
Magolan performed the first surgery,
on Hector’s left eye, at Duke Raleigh Hospital over
the December holiday so the boy wouldn’t have to miss
any school.
"He can see a lot better--he was not
even wearing glasses when I saw him," said Rosa
Almanzar, the Project Access translator who
accompanied the family on their medical visits. The
three children speak English, but their mother
understands only a little. "He’s very grateful."
Surgery on Hector’s right eye is
scheduled for his spring break, and dietary treatment
will be ongoing. But Magolan has let the family know
that even with these steps, Hector will probably lose
his vision in his 30s or 40s.
"He understood when the doctor said
it," Almanzar said of Hector, "but I don’t think it
really registered." That news was hard for her to
translate, especially when Hector’s mother said she
was praying for a miracle.
For now, though, Hector has clearer
sight and better night vision. He is able to drive and
is on track to graduate from high school this spring.
He also has a new girlfriend, who he met on the
Internet.
"He’s very happy," Almanzar said. ∞
Hector Torres with Dr. Jerome Magolan at a
follow-up visit after successful surgery.
