BREAKING NEWS---Strictly speaking it is not, for it was breaking even as we returned but we were a little hesitant to share it. However it seems irresponsible not to and we would value greatly your support at this time. A week ago, patients who had been newly operated on for cataracts started returning to us with serious infections to the operated eye. In all, eleven patients returned. As soon as the first cases appeared we closed the operating theatre and sent instruments and other items to a laboratory for analysis. Dr Osmany, who had operated on them, saw each patient as soon as they returned and prescribed appropriate medicine. We also contacted Dr John Sandford Smith in the UK for his advice about the possible sources of the infection and have put in hand the tests and proposals he suggested. (John, as some of you will know, has been a good friend to the eye work, and has done many stints here operating for us.) Very sadly, the eleven patients have effectively lost the sight of the eye operated on. All our staff have been deeply shaken by these things, not least Mansour our right hand man who has had to field the comeback in the wider community - “the worst week since I began here”. The operation fees have in several cases been returned to the affected families. Some have been extraordinarily gracious about it all; others have understandably found it more difficult. This is the first time anything like this has happened here and we are resolved to take every possible step to ensure it does not happen again. Dr Osmany has performed over 2000 operations in the past three years with excellent results. Rana, one of our technicians spoke to us yesterday, “maybe we were a little proud and God wanted us to learn some lessons”. Maybe…