Trips to Fiji Are Full of Work for Eye Doctor

GLENDALE —  On his first trip to the Fiji islands in 1989, eye doctor Jerold E. Beeve was thinking of a romantic getaway.

But Beeve’s first impressions of a resort on Turtle Island brought his focus sharply back to ophthalmology.

“When we arrived, we realized that for sure this was a very nice place,” he said. The problem was that many of the resort workers who made things so pleasant for Beeve and his wife seemed to be suffering from an almost complete lack of medical care.

Beeve learned that the government of the South Seas archipelago, which is responsible for all its citizens’ health care, does not have the resources to help the inhabitants of many of the smaller islands.

So Beeve and his wife, Dorothy, a nurse who runs her husband’s Glendale office, resolved to return with equipment and supplies to help the islanders.

They have since returned to Fiji three times, most recently in November, providing eye care, glasses and surgery for the islanders in some of the more remote areas of the archipelago, which is about 1,300 miles north of New Zealand.

During the 10-day November trip, Beeve, with his American anesthesiologist and scrub nurse, performed 38 eye surgeries, including 26 cataract operations. He gave glasses to almost 700 people. At one point, he screened 300 patients in 24 hours.

“We were working 14-hour days,” he said.

Beeve also spent some time talking with doctors in Suva, showing them how to use donated supplies and equipment, including a keratometer, which measures the cornea for implants after cataract removal.

Beeve funded his first eye care trip in 1991 himself, buying the sophisticated portable equipment he needed. “We didn’t get a new car that year, that’s for sure,” he said, laughing.

Now, there is the Beeve Foundation for World Eye and Health Inc., which is funded by private contributions. This year, Beeve also received equipment and supplies from corporate donors, such as Allergan Medical Optics, which donated 1,800 lenses valued at $200 each. The foundation is also planning a fund-raiser for 1993.

Fiji Minister of Health Leo B. Smith said his country appreciates the volunteer work, which supplements the government’s limited ability to provide health care.

“We’re a very small country and have a small budget,” said Smith, estimating that he has only $60 million to provide health care for a population of about 750,000.

Health care is available on the two larger islands of Viti Levu, where the capital city of Suva is located, and Vanua Levu, Smith said. But providing care on the approximately 300 outlying islands, where 30% to 40% of the population lives, is almost impossible.

There are approximately 300 doctors in the nation. Beeve described one in an outlying group of islands who had enough training only to dispense medicines and could not perform surgery.

Smith said, “Some of the areas he (Beeve) has been have not had the treatment for some time. If you want your eye care treatment, you come into the city,” which is not always feasible for poor islanders.

As an ophthalmologist, Beeve is a medical doctor, and although he specializes in eye care, this past trip found him treating open wounds, cysts and even a case of appendicitis, which he was able to treat with antibiotics. “It makes you wonder what these people do when we’re not there,” he said.