Dr. Dougherty’s Vision For The Future, Part 2

Dr. Dougherty’s Vision For The Future, Part 2

A continuation from Part 1 last week.

As part of Andrew Dougherty Vision Foundation, we also routinely gift LASIK surgery during armed forces weekend to severely wounded veterans from the Wounded Warrior Transition Facility in Ft. Hood, Texas in association with Herosnightout.org and the Motorcycle Charity Foundation.

As a group, we can rapidly change the lives of the needy.

In 2008, I worked with Bausch and Lomb, Inc., which organized an innovative charitable project known as “Changing 100 Lives in 100 Minutes” in celebration of the one hundred thousandth Crystalens accommodating intraocular lens (IOL) implant. B&L donated one hundred pairs of the lenses to low-income people across the United States, and an equal number of ophthalmologists performed implantation surgeries from coast to coast over the course of an hour and forty minutes, at no charge. The event took place on April 9. For more information, see this link:

https://www.meddeviceonline.com/doc/100-surgeons-provide-gift-of-sight-to-100-peo-0001

As one of the surgeons in the project, I had the opportunity to operate on both eyes of a patient in her early fifties who worked as a housekeeper. She had farsightedness and cataracts in both eyes, and she had never been able to afford to see an eye doctor or to get glasses for her farsightedness. When I first saw her, she was wearing a pair of glasses borrowed from a friend that were not even the correct prescription. Tragically, she told me she had never seen clearly as an adult. I performed cataract surgery with Crystalens implants on both eyes on that fateful April day, allowing her to see clearly distance and near without glasses for the first time in her adult life. What a positive, life-changing experience for patient and doctor.

Just because patients can’t afford surgery doesn’t rule them out!

My staff and I also work with Mission Cataract USA (www.missioncataractusa.org) whose goal is to eliminate blindness in the United States from cataracts (clouding of the natural lens of the eye). In concert with Mission Cataract USA and Staar Surgical, Inc, we routinely provide free eye surgery for those who do not have the ability to pay. One day each quarter is designated for such patients at my Advanced Sight Surgery Center in Los Angeles.

Dougherty Laser Vision is here to give back using all of our talents!

Every year since 2008, on Thanksgiving Day, Dougherty Laser Vision teams with The Westside Thanksgiving Day Dinner Committee to provide free eye care to the homeless at the Santa Monica Civic Arts Auditorium. This annual event provides food, clothing, blankets, haircuts, make-up, and medical care (including flu shots) for the homeless. At the event, my colleagues and I perform eye exams and give away eye drops for patients with dry eyes, allergies, and glaucoma. Eyeglasses donated from LASIK patients at Dougherty Laser Vision are given to patients with matching prescriptions.

Look for Part 3 of this series next week.