.
Hundreds of patients, some with cataracts so advanced they could almost be seen across the room, lined the temple to see three resident ophthalmologists.
Paul Phelps, a 1998 Onalaska High School graduate, watched as they examined each patient — twice.
“The doctors were good about showing me interesting cases, and, in the end, I learned how to diagnose several different types of eye pathology,” Phelps wrote in an online journal when he returned from Aravind eye camp in Thirupparankundram, India.
“I even got some practice with my ophthalmoscope.”
Phelps, 29, took a year off from Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to do medical research in India.
He described his eight- month stint at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India, as the “most rewarding and enriching” time of his life.
Days were spent assisting in corneal epithelial stem cell research, observing stem cell transplants in the operating theater, participating in eye camps, volunteering at an orphanage and attending conferences.
The Indian people were welcoming, and the hospital’s “give everyone sight” philosophy was refreshing, Phelps said.
Aravind, the world’s largest eye care facility, serves 2 million patients and performs 200,000 surgeries annually. Those who cannot pay are not turned away, Phelps said. The one-third of customers who pay for services cover the two-thirds that don’t.
Phelps will receive some research credit for his time overseas, but “99 percent” of the reason he went was for “personal experience.”
He had studied in England while earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota and always remembered the experience fondly.
“I wanted to repeat that and do something that was also worthwhile in medical school,” Phelps said.
Phelps plans on becoming an ophthalmologist because there are “no questions about the efficacy in treatment.” He will return to Drexel this summer to finish his final year of medical school.
“If someone is blind from cataracts, you do an intraocular lens transplant ... It’s an objective thing that will help them see better instantly,” he said.
.
Advertisement 
