Train hospital restores sight to thousands of impoverished patients

About 9,000 impoverished cataract patients living in seven provinces including Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Hubei, and Guangdong will receive free surgeries this year to restore their eyesight.

The Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express has also announced plans to turn its first “lifeline express train” into a museum. The train was donated by the Hong Kong government and put into service in 1997.

Studies in recent years have found that China has one of the largest numbers of people with diabetes. Every year approximately one million diabetes patients lose their eyesight because of a lack of proper medical treatment. It is estimated that by 2025 approximately 15 million people will lose their eyesight because of diabetes.

This looming problem is the reason why the foundation announced at a recent press event that it will focus on training qualified technicians for a diabetic retinopathy screening project, bringing the number of qualified personnel to 80 this year.

The foundation’s train hospital will also continue visiting countries along the Belt and Road this year, including Kazakhstan and Bangladesh. Some 500 impoverished cataract patients in each of these countries will be given free surgeries to remove their cataracts, and the foundation will support the construction of local eye surgery centers.

The train belonging to the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express set off on its first international journey in 2016. With the assistance of China’s Foreign Ministry, medical workers have traveled to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Pakistan to treat about 1,500 patients.