Inexpensive Cataract Surgery Cures Blindness in Minutes

Roughly half of the world’s blind population is blind due to cataracts, and could have their sight completely restored with cataract surgery. That’s why two ophthalmologists started the Himalayan Cataract Project in 1994 to bring the life-changing surgery to underserved countries.

The project performs free cataract surgeries in countries with minimal eye care access using a simple surgery that takes fewer than 20 minutes. The project also manufactures their own lenses locally, which has dropped the cost of performing the surgery from over $250 to just $25. Most patients would be capable of passing a driver’s license vision test the very next day.

“There is nothing else I can think of in the realm of medicine that is as cost-effective that we can do to really change lives instantaneously,” said Geoffrey Tabin, co-founder of the Himalayan Cataract Project.

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