Making a Visible Difference

By Suzanne Perry

Photograph by Ettore Malanca/SIPA

When the Orbis International Flying Eye Hospital touches down, it often creates a stir. Not many airplanes, after all, are equipped with an operating room, a laser-treatment center, a recovery room, and a classroom.

Orbis, a charity in New York that works to treat and prevent blindness, sends out its plane and a medical team about seven times a year to help train doctors in developing countries in eye-surgery techniques.

“When you drop down a big DC-10 jet with a hospital on board, the heads of state come out, the prime ministers, the leaders in the public health-care system,” says Brooke Johnson, the charity’s senior manager for U.S. public relations.

Orbis was started 25 years ago by medical experts recruited by David Paton, head of the ophthalmology department at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. A world traveler, he noticed that doctors in developing countries often could not afford overseas training programs, or were prevented by licensing laws from performing surgery abroad. His solution: fly the training to them.

The charity’s first plane, a DC-8, was donated by United Airlines and made its maiden voyage to Panama in 1982. Orbis replaced it in 1992 with the much-larger DC-10 wide-body aircraft, which it purchased with three large gifts from individuals. Ms. Johnson says the original plane is now on display at the Aerospace Museum, in Beijing.

Dr. Paton has since left Orbis, but another founder, A.L. Ueltschi, chairman of FlightSafety International, an aviation training program, remains as chairman of the Orbis board.

The Flying Eye Hospital carries out its mission with the help of pilots from FedEx Express and United Airlines who volunteer their time, and about 400 medical professionals who donate their services. Orbis, with an annual budget of $33-million, now also operates permanent programs in Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam to treat childhood blindness and blindness caused by cataract, trachoma, and corneal disease. Ms. Johnson says the group has trained more than 93,000 doctors and other medical workers in 84 countries.

While the programs on the ground are important, the Flying Eye Hospital is a unique public-awareness tool, says Ms. Johnson. “The visibility and celebrity of the plane attracts so much attention,” she says. “It becomes a catalyst for hope and change.”