Charitable works

Bilateral cataracts


The mission house at Natuvu Creek

What compels charitable giving? Very often it’s a simple, and perhaps universal, impulse to care for others less fortunate than ourselves. Sometimes it’s a manifestation of religious faith. And in the case of many physicians, it’s an extension of the values and sensibilities that called them into medicine in the first place.
Whatever the cause, many of you are involved in developing and supporting a wide variety of charitable activities at home and overseas. In this, the second of a series of three articles we’ll look at the Mission at Natuvu Creek in Buca Bay, Vanua Levu, Fiji.
The Mission is the work of Tom and Marta Tooma. He is an ophthalmologist in practice at TLC Laser Eye Center in Newport Beach, California, and she is a dentist. About 12 years ago Marta took a group of senior dental students to Fiji and became enchanted with the Fijian people. “They are what drew us to Fiji. They’re very gracious, gentle, loving, and content with very little of a material nature,” said Tom, adding, “There is also a tremendous need for medical services. The only other ophthalmologist is a 4-hour drive away, and the drawing population is between 250,000 to 300,000 people.” After several years of making trips to Fiji, the Toomas purchased a piece of land on which to build their mission and medical facility.
The Republic of the Fiji Islands is in the South Pacific about 1,200 miles north of New Zealand. The country is the largest archipelago in the world and is made up of 332 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, are home to about 90 percent of the 958,000 Fijians.
The Mission facility is about 6,000 sq/ ft divided into areas for ophthalmology, dentistry and general medicine. “We have a full-time general surgeon who staffs the office all year-round,” Tom said. The ophthalmology equipment has been donated primarily by our family foundation, as well as Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas) and Abbott Medical Optics (Santa Ana, Calif.). We have new cataract surgery equipment, and everything you’d have in a modern operating room here in the U.S. The equipment is permanently located there to be available for the eye teams that go there. We have four surgery teams that are going there this year.
Unlike the U.S. , Tooma says that he sees a lot of patients who are light-perception blind from mature cataracts. “Cataract surgery literally changes their lives. They go from being completely dependent on people for such things as feeding them, holding their hands while walking them around and doing everything for them, to becoming independent individuals capable of taking care of themselves,” he said. We also have teams that go there to do orthopedic surgery, reconstructive plastic surgery, general surgery, gynecological care, dermatology, and other specialties, Tooma added.
For example, “We had a general surgeon, a plastic surgeon, and an anesthesiologist recently and we did cleft lips and palets, we removed some large tumors, did hernia repairs and some orthopedic surgery at a local hospital, … some spine surgery, total hips, total knees, that sort of thing,” Tooma said.
For those who need glasses, the Mission does the exam, uses donated frames, and has the machinery to make lenses on the same day patients come in. It also gives out reading glasses as few people there can afford them or have access to them. “Again, in terms of a life-changing experience, something as simple as reading glasses transforms lives by giving back the ability to read,” Tooma said. There are also many patients who suffer from pterygium, which is probably related to excessive exposure to sunlight on the islands, he said. “As few villagers can afford sunglasses, we give out a lot of them as well,” he added.
Beyond medical care
Infrastructure has a great impact on community health. The mission also helps villages with clean water supply, septic tanks, nutrition education, and a Christian ministry.
“I am a Christian. Christ and Scriptures tell us that we need to help people in need, so we are following our religious beliefs in helping the needy. By sharing Christian principals with the people, we believe that they become better citizens, and better people. We also teach them leadership and entrepreneurial skills so they can become leaders and entrepreneurs in their own communities. We are also establishing a few industries there to help generate funds to sustain the mission and provide employment,” Tooma said.
Working with community leaders
Often, when volunteer organizations go into underdeveloped areas, they can jostle the established medical and community leaders. Not so with the Mission, says Tooma. “We’ve developed a very good relationship with the government. On my last trip I spent more than an hour with the President of Fiji. I’ve also met with the Prime Minister and the ministers of lands, energy and health. We’ve established a lot of good will over the 12 years that we have been working there. Because they know that we provide services that are lacking in the region, and that we have no other motives, they facilitate everything that we do,” says Tooma.
Getting involved
Gordon Johns, M.D., a cataract and glaucoma specialist at the Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute in Chehalis, Washington, is among the surgeons who have volunteered at the Mission at Natuvu Creek. “I knew Dr. Tooma when he did his residency at Loma Linda University where I was on the faculty at the time. I’d heard of what he was doing, so I contacted him directly to volunteer,” Johns said.
“I was there for a week and did 44 cataract procedures and nine pterygia. The facility that Dr. Tooma has is first rate, what you’d expect to see here in the U.S.,” Johns said. It’s humid there, but the OR is air-conditioned and the water system is such that the water is potable. There’s an AMO Sovereign compact phaco machine, a Leica Wild Surgical Microscope, as well as Alcon equipment and supplies. “We had a whole spectrum of IOLs. I brought some of the AMO ZA 9003 Tecnis lenses. Other people had been there and left a stash of Alcon ReStor and other silicone lenses,” said Johns.
There were no criteria for providing cataract surgery other than a reasonable expectation that the patient would benefit. There was no screening for finances or need. They had no finances and they all had a need, Johns said.
“I brought my wife last year. She does not have a medical background, but I put her to work getting the patients ready for surgery, getting the eyes dilated. She was as happy as could be, talking and working with the patients,” Johns said.
It’s an enriching experience for the people you help, for yourself, and the people you work with. It’s really enjoyable to participate in the human experience were you’re relieving pain and suffering, where you’re able to help people improve the quality of their lives, Johns said.
The Mission at Natuvu Creek is always seeking ophthalmologists who can volunteer at the medical center. Volunteers are housed in the area, and can enjoy healthy local foods while staying in safe and amenable living quarters amid the beauty of the land and the kindness of the Fijian people, Tooma said.
To find out more about the Mission at Natuvu, go to www.missionatnatuvucreek.com or contact Marta Tooma, DDS, and Tom Tooma, MD, at 86 Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, CA 92651; e-mail: martatooma@cox.net.