Assan and Alusan - Cataracts

Double Vision: Twins Blind from Birth Receive Their Sight

Two-year-old twins, Assan and Alusan, had never seen their mother’s smile. Born with cataracts in both eyes, the boys could detect light and dark but little else.

A neighbor in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp where the family has lived since leaving Sierra Leone in 1999 told Ellen about a Mercy Ship docked at the nearby port. The boys’ mother, Ellen, brought the twins to the hospital ship on April 15th where they were examined and scheduled for surgery the following week.

On April 20th, Ellen left her two older children, 11-year-old Princess and six-year-old Ansu, with her mother and brought the twins to the ship. The next day, Dr. Glenn Strauss removed cataracts from both eyes of each boy. They wore eye patches for 24 hours to stop them scratching their eyes.

When the patches were removed, the obvious improvement delighted Ellen and the ship’s crewmembers alike. Where once their eyes had been sunken and unresponsive, now Assan and Alusan opened their eyes wide and carefully followed the movements of hands and balloons. When they were taken home in a Mercy Ships land rover, family members rushed to scoop them up and hug them. One of the first things the boys did was to play a game of tag with each other.

Assan and Alusan now see the world with new eyes and are learning to smile.