A neighbour came home from the hospital eye clinic last week. with the news that she is going to go blind. She is just 70. Over three years ago she began having trouble with ingrowing eyelashes and then began her frequent trips to have them plucked out. A painful experience. The condition has a name.

With swollen red eyes she has stoically borne this unpleasant condition with little complaint. Then ulcers began to form and she eventually lost sight in one eye. The trips to the hospital have carried on without much actually being achieved apart from drops and lash plucking. Tracoma is an infectious disease of the eyes and very little can be done about it. How did she get this infection, I wonder?

Could more have been done to prevent this happening? Are the hospital waiting lists to blame? Can we really expect our "free" medical treatment
to be of the best standard, given the state of the economy. Even when we had a good economy our clinic visits were becoming longer.

This dear lady has said she will stay in her house. It is already cleared of any obstacles as with only one eye with poor vision she has had to modify. The pain is never ending and when she is blind will she still be going to the Hospital to have her lashes plucked or can they remove them permanently, or would the effort be too expensive?