This is Airsider.

Orbis is a development organization with the goal to improve eyecare standards all over the globe. To do so, Orbis operates its own aircraft, a DC-10 which has been converted to the world's only Flying Eye Hospital. We joined the crew on a programme in Bulgaria. A report by Michael Meier.

When we arrived at the Specialised Eye Hospital in Varna, the forecourt of the entrance was already crowded. About two hundred people came to see a doctor today. It's not an ordinary day for the hospital; the patients have been invited to be examined by one of the international ophthalmologists who are in town right now.

These foreign specialists are volunteers, working for Orbis International, a non-profit organisation with the aim to eliminate avoidable blindness all over the planet. To reach that goal, Orbis flies its own aircraft, a Douglas DC-10 which has been converted into the world's only Flying Eye Hospital. With this plane, Orbis flies to developing regions, doing surgeries on board and teaching the local doctors in eye healthcare.

By invitation of the Varna Specialised Eye Hospital, Orbis arrived on the Bulgarian Black Sea for a three week programmeme.

Bulgaria is an emerging nation; a lot of western influence can be seen since the country opened up after the end of the Cold War in Nineties. However, developments in the medical sector have been small. The knowledge of doctors and nurses is not up to western standards yet. While there is a good formal education at the university, advanced training is hard to get. Due to the lack of money, ophthalmologists, nurses and biomedical engineers are basically not able to attend conferences or hands-on training sessions abroad.

That's where Orbis comes in. In close cooperation with the Varna Specialised Eye Hospital, headed by Dr. Dragomir Draganov, a programmeme was designed to meet the exact needs of the local people. It is already Orbis' sixth visit here. While there has been strong progress since the first mission, there's still a lot to do. During the three-week programmeme, a large number of eye care professionals from throughout Bulgaria will work alongside Orbis's international medical team on board of the Flying Eye Hospital. It aims to address the problems of lack of specialised training for ophthalmologists and continued education for nurses.

Back to the crowds in front of the hospital now. A typical week starts with the so-called screening day. During the past months and weeks, local doctors have preselected a number of cases. Those people need a complicated eye treatment, which couldn't be done by the hospital staff due to the lack of knowledge or suitable equipment. Orbis' specialists will now look at these patients and select the ones who get treatment during the upcoming week. This selection is based on a number of criteria, including the one that the problems have to be good examples for the training sessions.

After screening day, the first surgeries will start by Tuesday. More than sixty cases have been selected for this week. Quite a huge number which leads to a tight schedule, but it is a goal to help as many people as possible during the short time that Orbis is in town.

A huge part of the patients are children; most of them are living with limited viewing capabilities since birth. One of them is Zhana, a ten year old girl. She's here to get her eye muscles corrected. While her problem is not really visible, it is a massive disturbance to her view.

After the first examination in the hospital, her surgery is scheduled for Tuesday on the aircraft. Dr. Bradley Black, pediatric ophthalmologist at Louisiana State University is in charge of the operation. It is already his nineteenth programmeme as an ORBIS volunteer. Previous programmemes included destinations such as Trinidad, Cuba, New Guinea, Honduras, Nicaragua, Myanmar, China, Mongolia and many more. In Bulgaria, Dr. Black provides training in paediatrics.

During the surgery, he corrects the muscles in Zhana's eyes. But the operation does not only help Zhana. At the same time, a number of Bulgarian ophthalmologists have the chance to watch the operation live from the classroom which is located in front of the DC-10. The aircraft is equipped with a huge number of TV cameras; even the microscope in the surgery room is fitted with a camera. During the live broadcast, Dr. Black is also commenting his work and the visitors are able to ask him questions, while he's working. That way, the local specialists can follow the surgery and learn as much as possible from it.

After the operation has been completed, Dr. Black joins the group in the classroom to talk about some details and to answer more questions. At the same time, Zhana is in the recovery room, where she wakes up from the anaesthesia. Together with her mother, she will then be transferred back to the hospital where she will spend the night. The next day, she will come back on the aircraft to meet Dr. Black for a post operation examination.

For Zhana, the Orbis adventure ends at this point. She will now enjoy a much clearer vision.

For the trained ophthalmologists, nurses and engineers on the other hand, the Orbis experience will hopefully last for a long time. They got the chance to learn from very experienced colleagues and they now have to use this knowledge and pass it on, making Orbis' mission sustainable and lasting.

Zhana during the preparation for her surgery.

Zhana during the preparation for her surgery.

Zhana with Orbis staff member Tine Frank. The day after surgery, Zhana looks to her "new" eyes in a small mirror

The operating room on the DC-10