Help Save Simba’s Eye

TRAFFIC ACCIDENT Simba was a perfectly healthy and happy individual until the 17th of July in 2014 when he was involved in a car accident due to a burst tyre and the horrendous Zimbabwean roads. This accident, thankfully, spared all his body's limbs but did major damages to his face; particularly his right eye and mouth. He sustained a lacerated lower right- eyelid, a fractured bone in the face that displaced his nose as well as a punctured tongue. He also lost a lot of blood and because most of the injuries were around the head, the doctors suspected brain damage. HOSPITALIZATION Fortunately for Simba, an accident was immediately available to ferry him from the district hospital where he was to ZImbabwe's largest government referral hospital. There he was resuscitate and admitted into Intensive Care Unit for a week and later released to general ward where he was admitted for a futher three weeks. His punctured tongue was operated on and other wounds sutured and he was released for home care. The Doctors however recommended that Simba was supposed to return later to consult with opthalmologists and maxillo-facial surgeons. REVIEWS After a month's stay at home, Simba began the reviews with the specialists who had been recommended. The maxillo-facial surgeon was very open that the operation to repair the fracture bone around the nose would cost thousands of dollars and if money does not allow, that operation must be aborted because the condition is not life threatening; advice that we took. The opthalmologist however mentioned that because the lower right-eyelid was severely lacerated, the eye itself was in danger of drying out and may eventually be a problem. He also noted that a tear duct in the same eye was damaged and needed repairing because the eye constantly oozes tears. They charged US$498.00 for the operation and family raised that amount and the operation was perfomed. On post-operation review, it was noted that the operation was poorly done and Simba was referred to a London Educated Occuloplastic Surgeon and Opthalmologist who says the risk of losing the eye now is very high. An operation need to be perfomed promptly to correct both the eyelid and the tear duct. While Simba is a qualified Nutritionist from the University of Zimbabwe, the government froze all the nutritionists' vacancies in District Hospitals and Simba is therefore unemployed; meaning he has no medical insurance. The prolonged stay in the hospital cost a lot of money and there has been a lot of medications that we have had to buy because government hospitals rarely have these medicines in stock. The occuloplastic surgeon we have enganged now gave us a proforma invoice of US$1762.00 and said wen the money becomes available, the operation can be done and Simba's eye saved. So we wish to raise this amount to help Simba keep his eye.