Cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye that begins as a vague blurriness and can lead to blindness, is a common affliction of aging. For insured Americans, cataract surgery is a routine procedure that restores vision completely.
Despite the simplicity of cataract surgery, about 20 million people worldwide are blind because of cataracts, and 90 percent of them live in developing countries.
Dr. Suresh Chandra, an opthalmologist at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, has been working to eliminate preventable blindness through the Combat Blindness Foundation he started in Madison in 1984. Since then, the CBF has supported more than 100,000 free cataract surgeries.