Local eye physicians take skills overseas

By Bryce Kelly, Mt. Pleasant News

It?s no small feat to practice medicine overseas, but both Dr. Chris Watts and Dr. Alex Cohen, of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, in Mt. Pleasant, say the experience is both professionally rewarding and good for the soul.

Combined, both eye physicians have been overseas to perform medical procedures a total of five times, and both say they have every intention of doing it more. Dr. Cohen has now been to Swaziland, Africa twice, while Dr. Watts has made the trek to the Dominican Republic three times. Both areas are lacking in basic medical care that many Americans have readily available. In fact, in both areas, hundreds of locals are stricken with various ocular health issues, mainly cataracts, that leave them partially or totally without sight.

?Initially, the thing that got me hooked on going overseas was when a friend of mine made me aware of a cataract program that was trying to be set up there,? said Dr. Cohen, who partners with The Luke Commission to help address urgent healthcare needs in Swaziland. ?This country really needed doctors, so I thought I would see what I could offer.?

His first trip in 2015, which lasted roughly a week, offered him the opportunity to perform around 125 surgeries to correct ocular issues like cataracts, eye tumors, and even a cornea transplant. His second trip last year yielded much of the same results.

?In this country, we tend to operate on people who are experiencing problems with their vision and we try to correct issues before their sight is totally lost,? said Cohen. ?In Swaziland, and many countries like it, because there is little to no access to healthcare, total blindness is so common and as anyone can imagine, is absolutely devastating to the patient and the people doing their best to care for them.?

According to Dr. Watts, who began his work in the Dominican Republic while he was still in medical residency at the University of Iowa, much of the same issues present in Swaziland also impact many areas of the Dominican Republic. His work in the Dominican Republic has mainly consisted of correcting cataract issues ? the leading cause of blindness in the country.

?To be honest, it?s kind of addicting,? he said of his overseas work. ?To see people get medical care for something that they never thought they would be healed from is really, really special. The Dominican people are really wonderful people, and helping them live better lives is something I have come to really care about.?

Already, the pair says they are hoping to make trips overseas again this year. And when it comes to learning from their experiences with international work, both say their time in these countries has impacted their local practices back home in southeast Iowa.

Through the help of modern technology and overseas missionaries, for example, Dr. Cohen is able to consult with medical professionals currently working in Swaziland and even keep up to date with some of the patients he treated when he was last there. Having that ability to check-in, he says, allows for a lot of professional accountability and learning.

?It?s great to have that ability so that if there were complications from a surgery or some kind of procedure we did, we can better assess that and hopefully correct it. We never want to just go into an area, do a group of surgeries and then leave without any follow-up if we can help it,? he said. ?We always want to do our best to treat patients overseas with as much care as we would our local patients here in Iowa.?

And while such capabilities are not yet readily available in the areas of the Dominican Republic that Dr. Watts travels to, he says cultivating and facilitating more established medical practices in these areas are essential to medical advancements being made in these areas of the world.

?We don?t ever want to forget our home and the patients we have here because we know there are still many people who struggle with vision issues and who struggle to find adequate care for their needs in the U.S.,? he said. ?We simply want to take our knowledge and experience to help as many people as we can and continue to learn how to care for patients better along the way.?