Help Restore Angelica's Eyesight!
In June, 1996 Angelica contracted” Stevens-Johnsons-Syndrome”, a very rare allergic reaction which almost took her life and left her completely blind. She was 18 years old. In August of 1999, June of 2000 and October of 2006, under the sponsorship of The Mountain of Hope, Angelica traveled to Orlando, Florida for complex surgeries and examinations not available in Central America. Angelica was one of 10 other Hondurans who have been brought to the USA by The Mountain of Hope for specialized medical treatment not available in Honduras or other nearby countries. All such patients have been treated at no cost to themselves or the US government and have returned to Honduras with an improved quality of life.
During Angelica’s surgeries performed in the USA in 1999, she received a corneal transplant which unfortunately has failed. In her subsequent visits and examinations it was determined that she was not a candidate for the types of surgeries being used in the United States at that time. However there is now a new procedure (OOKP) that she may be a candidate for that could restore her sight. She has undergone examination and consultation with surgeons Dr. Kevin Barber (Central Florida Eye Specialists, Orlando) and Dr. Guillermo Amescua (Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami) on Jan 27 and 29, 2020. These examinations/consultations determined that Angelica is an excellent surgical candidate. The Doctors have agreed to donate their services, however the transportation and hospital expenses will total approximately $55,000.
“It was at the 1996 Mountain of Hope Medical Mission when I first met Angelica, the fourth year we had been doing medical missions in Quince de Enero and one of two years that our daughter, Anna, went with me. I went into the bodega next to the temporary clinic (we hadn’t built the clinic yet) and saw a coffin there! It was an unusual one, at least to me. It had a window cut into the top so the person’s face could be seen.
They bury people there the same day they die. They don’t have embalming capabilities, so relatives and friends come and say their good byes through the window. I asked Donna Niche, the head village woman, “What’s the story about this coffin with the window?” She said, “Oh, that’s for my niece. She’s going to die this week.” Her family had already taken up a collection and someone with a pickup went and got a coffin, then placed it in the bodega. Angelica had been at one of the major hospitals in San Pedro Sula, where the doctors said, “We don’t know what’s wrong with her. Take her home. She’s going to die this week.”
Then I said, “Where is she? Take me to her!” She was in a house three houses away from the church, where we were holding the temporary clinic. She was sitting with both arms down at the edge of her bed, head drooping down and barely alive. We had two additional family practice doctors from Memphis with us that year, Dr. Philip Smith and Dr. Barton Thrasher. I had made the announcement that, if there were people who couldn’t get to the clinic on their own, we would bring a doctor to them. When I saw her terrible condition, with pustules all down her arms, face, legs, even down her throat, I immediately came back and got the two docs. They took one look at her, saw the empty pill bottle, picked it up and said, “Oh, we know what that is, and we have the antidote with us.” Turns out that her body had been actually trying to kill her, reacting to a medication she had previously been taking.
Fortunately, she responded to the antidote. Anna and I drove her to the hospital, with her two uncles to help carry her. We didn’t know if we would ever see her again, and she spent the next month in that hospital recuperating. She recovered, but she was blind, and her whole body is scarred from the boils. With all that, she remains one of the sweetest, gentle women I know.
That was in 1996, thirty years ago. She is now the same age as our daughter, Anna, who was there when we discovered her. Her mother has been her on-the-arm guide and caregiver since then. John Millonig and I have made it our mission to get her help to restore her vision. There is a surgical procedure called OOKP (Osteo-odonto-keraprochesis) or commonly called “tooth-in-eye”. There was an excellent Sixty Minutes program about it a few years ago, called “A Tooth for an Eye”. What that means is that they take one of the canine teeth and mill it down to the exact dimensions needed. Then they put it in her cheek, where it grows new blood vessels. Then the last surgery is when they take out the iris and insert this “tooth” into her eye, and that’s what holds her “camera”, or digital transmitter. It has become a living part of her eye. Who thinks this stuff up?!
John Millonig has taken Angelica to multiple examinations at various clinics for testing in the last few years. All the tests came back positive, showing that she is an excellent candidate for this procedure. The same ophthalmologist featured in the Sixty Minutes special, Dr. Greg Maloney, is now on staff at a hospital in Vancouver, B.C., and he will be donating his surgical services for the operation. However, the hospital requires us to pay their costs, which are estimated to be almost $50,000. I live close to Portland and will drive her to and from Vancouver, B.C. when she gets the original surgery.
She will need to stay in Florida for multiple checkups, and we already have an ophthalmologist, Dr. Kevin Barber, formerly of St. Peters, willing to monitor her for those many visits, on a donation basis. We also have local bi-lingual St. Peters families who will house and feed Angelica and her mother during those times. The monitoring visits would not be available in Honduras.
Sara and I are offering a $1,000 challenge grant to fundraise for Angelica’s surgery. When contributions come in totaling $1,000, we will match that same amount, up to a total of $10,000. It has been John Millonig’s and my constant focus to make it happen for Angelica to regain her sight. With God’s help I know we can!”
– Dean Byers, former Vestry member